Wednesday, February 1, 2012

will you buy a fine dog?

an interesting aspect of language is that some words can change meaning over time.

here is a video of a quaint old song called "will you buy a fine dog?" by thomas morley that demonstrates an amusing case of changing definitions...

enjoy ;)



at one time people referred to a loaf of rye or dill bread as a dildo, although today's common meaning is quite different. tee hee ;)

4 comments:

heroineworshipper said...

About time the blog mentioned the solar eclipse on May 20.

Emma said...

I'm reading The Etymologicon at the moment (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Etymologicon-Circular-through-Connections-Language/dp/1848313071/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328558217&sr=1-1) - it's full of similar quirky language facts.

indigocat said...

On the contrary. Thomas Morley knew perfectly well the double meaning of the word 'dildo'. He has, as he says 'other daintie tricks'.

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the word dog was slang for penis...the song is one big innuendo.