Examples:
1774 Lady's Mag. Aug. 436/2 A waterman, honest and blunt; and a gardener, made up of coxcombery and foppishness, pay their respective addresses to her.I'm not entirely sure who "Jack Essences" were. Some sort of ill-conducted soldiers? And I'm wondering about "jack-the-lad" too. Ah! It's "a brash, self-assured young man" (OED).
1837 Fraser's Mag. Nov. 581/1 The Jack Essences either perished for want of ‘Warren's Milk of Roses’ to wash with..; or else..they threw aside their slough of effeminate coxcombery, and turned into brave and well-conducted soldiers.
1921 E. L. White Andivius Hedulio i. i. 8 Travelling long distances by litter..had become a fashion through the extreme coxcombery of wealthy fops.
2002 Times (Nexis) 31 Aug. 24 Listen to rap music.., feel the empty bravado and jack-the-lad bombast, and you will have the whole damn strutting coxcombery in a nutshell.
As for Warren's Milk of Roses, here's a recipe: "Two ounces of rose water, a tea-spoonful of oil of sweet almonds, and twelve drops of oil of tartar must be put into a bottle, and the bottle well shaken till the whole combines." It was "highly recommended... by most females of distinction, for clearing and preserving the skin, and for rendering the complexion delicately fair and beautiful: it entirely removes redness, sunburn and freckles."
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21 comments:
A cuckold is a rooster whose hen is cheating on him.
My goal this week is to use 'coxcombery and foppishness' in a sentence sent out to business associates. If I'm going out, I've got to do it in style.
"Jack Essences" - my guess is fashionable officers, or fashionable gentlemen playing at being officers, which was a thing at the time (reign of the Prince Regent).
My vote: Andrew Ross Sorkin of the NYT and CNBC,
Antifa are all that.
I spent too long thinking about words with a silent "b" and if the pronunciation changes with an added ending/change in form. I think the "b" is silent here whether it's coxcomb or coxcombery, but I'm not positive since we have crumb and crumble.
Jack-the-lad was a common expression at one time among folks from the UK. I used to hear it in the '90s, but not so much lately. It's a delightful turn of phrase.
Foghorn Leghorn FTW. A coxcomb for sure. But at least he never wore shorts.
[Ice Age]
SPOCK: Heating this boulder may provide some temporary heat.
MCCOY: What's wrong?
SPOCK: Something's preventing my phaser from operating.
[17th Century]
WENCH: Oh, thank you, man. I thought I'd be limbered sure when that gull caught me cutting his purse.
KIRK: What's that? Are you all right?
WENCH: Oh, I took you to be an angler, but you're none of us, are ya? Well, you're a bully fine coe for all of that. What a handsome dish ya served them, the coxcombs.
KIRK: You better come back with me to the library. You'll be safe there. Doctor McCoy can see to those bruises.
WENCH: I'm game, love. Lead and I'll follow. Where's library?
KIRK: It's right over there.
(But all he sees is a blank brick wall)
[Ice Age]
MCCOY: Where's the captain, Spock? We were right behind him.
[17th Century]
WENCH: What's with you, man? Let's make off before coxcombs come with shoulder clappers.
KIRK: No. Do you remember when you first saw me? Do you remember whether I came through some kind of door?
WENCH: Oh, I think the rum gull must've kicked you in the head. Come on, love. I know a leech who'll ask no questions.
KIRK: No. No. It must be here someplace.
MCCOY [OC]: Jim!
[Ice Age]
MCCOY: Jim, can you hear us?
Coxcombery
Watching the movie Scarface, I wondered if this guy's name translated to General Cucumber.
"This charming face here belongs to General Cucombre."
Alas, cucumber in Spanish is pepino, which is sad because I like the name General Cucumber.
I'm always amazed at the number of obscure English words. I consider myself fairly well-read (though I'm no college professor), and have wondered how many words the average person knows. I suppose the answer is somewhere on the internet machine.
I asked a Japanese friend once how many Kanji characters (the symbols taken from the Chinese, not the characters used to spell words phonetically) the average Japanese person knows. Apparently school children are taught around 2,000 of them. And speaking of university professors, a well-read professor would know about 5,000 characters.
The thing is, there are probably 50,000 of them...
Whaddaya want, soft soap?
There's a mountain in the San Juan's of CO named "Coxcomb peak"
He's adorable.
see here. (peak on the left)
Courtesy of Madame De Stael, I learned the meaning of gasconade. It's how she described Napoleon's speeches. A gasconade is a preening, self congratulatory speech. The word deserves more currency. Coxcombery sounds vaguely dirty. A gasconade, although French, is much easier to spell and sounds less sinister. Almost boyish and innocent in fact. Trump's speeches are frequently gasconades. Adam Schiff, on the other hand, speaks like a coxcomb.
William: c.v. rodomontade, fanfaronade
rodomontade and gasconade have both been discussed in old posts on this blog.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2019/04/i-learned-new-word-yesterday-rodomontade.html
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2016/08/shhhh.html
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2017/09/but-others-will-be-regarded-as-idlers.html
Gasconade rolls off the tongue gently. Rodomontade has too many syllables. You can kind of guess what a gasconade is, but rodomontade is too highfalutin for ordinary conversation. You sound rodomontade when you use a word like rodomontade. Fanfaronade has a connotation of oral flatulence and gives more spite to the insult, but I'm sticking with gasconade. It's a cannonade of pastries delivered by a garcon.
The Spectator by Addison and Steele has a lot of mention of Coxcombs. It was a quite popular publication back in the day. It ran from 1711 to 1712. I have a bound book collection of these publications dating from 1835. The style of writing is quite distinctive, sort of like essays written in letter format with many questions answered in sort of Miss Manners style. There are also gossip like entries regarding coxcombs and fashion. It was written from the viewpoint of a fictional character known as the Spectator. According to Addison And Steele the goal of the publication was “ enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality“. For me, it shows a fascinating view of life in 1711 to 1712 London.
It's a cannonade of pastries delivered by a garcon.
No, a Gascon, who is just the type to deliver a gasconade.
PETRUCHIO:
I swear I'll cuff you if you strike again.
KATHERINA:
So may you lose your arms:
If you strike me, you are no gentleman;
And if no gentleman, why then no arms.
PETRUCHIO:
A herald, Kate? O! put me in thy books.
KATHERINA:
What is your crest? a coxcomb?
PETRUCHIO:
A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen.
KATHERINA:
No cock of mine; you crow too like a craven.
If you think Gascogny is a boastful land, wait until you get a hold of Fanfarogny.
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