Pip was writing a story with a medieval flavor and asked if we knew of 'a good word meaning for a really evil little creep. Here are my suggestions:
Mewling, Notty-pated hedgepig?
Currish, doghearted maggot-pie?
Lout?
Hugger-mugger?
ratsbane?
These are Elizabethan, but some of them might have been around in
the middle ages. They came from some webpages of Shakespearian insults. You can google for them, but most of the ones I've seen require Parental Supervision.
Medieval insults (which would most often need to be translated as English wasn't yet close enough to our version to make it easy to understand);
Latin:
"Tu sochors! Tu stercus porci! Tu uulpicule omnium uulpiculorum!
Tu uulpis cauda! Tu uulpis barba! Tu nebris uulpiculi! Tu uechors et
semichors! Tu scurra!"
English:
"You idiot! You pig filth! You fox cub of all fox cubs! You fox
tail! You fox beard! You skin of a fox cub! You idiot and halfwit!
You buffoon!"
From Piers Plowman:
doltish dunce!
"'That thou tellest,' quod Truthe, 'is but a tale of waltrot!'"
"'What you say,' said Truth, 'is nothing but a tale of claptrap!"
From what I can tell, the Elizabethans were creative and occasionally crude, and the Medievals were mostly just vulgar and crass, which is why we had to use a retelling of Chaucer for year 7 in AmblesideOnline.
Here's an interesting website on language in the middle ages, and
the website is safe, but I haven't looked at any links. According
to the article, French was more often the language for insults.
Languages in Medieval England
Don't know if this is medieval or not, but it's certainly a satisfying word:
facinorous (fa-SIN-uhr-uhs) adjective
Extremely wicked.
[From Latin facinorous, from facinus (bad deed), from facere (to do or make).]
"O ambitious Marius! O cruel Catiline! O facinorous Sylla!"
Miguel de Cervantes; Don Quixote (Translation by Thomas Shelton).
"Parolles: Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief
and the tedious of it; and he is of a most facinorous spirit ..."
William Shakespeare; All's Well that Ends Well (Act II, Scene III).
Words do change over time, but does anybody else find it somewhat troubling that totally wicked has become a phrase used for good instead of evil? Is this a symptom of some deeper flaw in our culture, or am I being to literal minded?
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20
What is Pip's story about? Or is it a secret? :.)
ReplyDeleteHow about the insulting line in Our American Cousin delivered just before President Lincoln was shot?
ReplyDelete"Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal -- you sockdologizing old mantrap!"
It is alleged to be the funniest line of the play, such that the audience's laughter would help obscure the sound of Booth's gun.
Eh, I guess you had to be there.
Is this a symptom of some deeper flaw in our culture, or am I being to literal minded?
I'll go with the second (albeit homophonically misspelled) option.
From P.G. Wodehouse's The Catnappers come these delicacies: "lily-livered poltroon" and "sleekit timorous cowering beastie."
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily medieval, but he sure has a flair, doesn't he?
What is Pip's story about? Or is it a secret? :.)
ReplyDeleteWell, it *was* the one that there is an exerpt of in the post below this one.
But that exerpt is about as far as it goes. :p
Sounds like most of the stuff I've written-- nice beginning, but that's about as far as it goes! :.) Your beginning is enough to make me want to read more, though.
ReplyDeleteWoodhouse is quoting Burns when he writes "sleekit timorous cowering beastie." It does roll off the tongue, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI know this page was written about 5 years ago, and the story is most likely finished by now, but some good actually Medieval Insults are:
ReplyDeleteLightminded (Airhead!)
Thou stinkest! (You stink!)
Thou art a Blab! (You are a Tattle-tale!)
Thou art worthy to be hanged! (I wish you were dead!)
Turd in the Teeth! (Shitface!)
Thou art a false knave! (Liar, liar, pants on fire!)
His nose is like a shoeing horn.
He is the veriest coward that ever pissed!
A dog's butt in your face!
You doltish dunce! Dull are your wits!
I will have a Rose and you will have a Snotty Nose!
I will have a whip and you will have the pip!
I have eaten a dishful of curds
and I have shitten your mouth with turds!