polyphiloprogenitive what?

“All spring and summer my parents ricochet from garden to garden, mulching, watering, pulling up the polyphiloprogenitive weeds, ‘until’, my mother says, ‘I’m bent over like a coat hanger,'” writes Margaret Atwood in a book called Bluebeard’s Egg.

800px-Interbay_P-Patch_gardeners_04

Photo courtesy of Joe Mabel via Wikimedia Commons

I feel pretty certain that you and I are both still stuck at poly

Polyphiloprogenitive, was it?

Thank goodness for a computer’s “copy” and “paste” functions (I dare not re-type that one on my own).

This term—polyphiloprogenitive (see, I pasted again!)—is one of those words whose meaning a farmgirl can glean from context,

particularly when the context involves garden weeds (think extremely prolific),

but that doesn’t make saying it any easier.

A syllabic breakdown is in order.

Join me:

po-ly

phi-lo

pro

gen-i-tive

Now … say it three times fast!

The_Happy_Gardener_(5701562497)

Photo courtesy of Elizabeth via Wikimedia Commons

 

Wink.

 

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    A total tongue twister for me but quite an interesting word for the complex work involved in every garden. I bet it was one of those words that broke the stalemate of an intense Scrabble game late one evening!

  2. Lisa A says:

    I just saw this on Wordsmith this week! Do you get their e-mails?

  3. Winnie, not enough letters to work with to do in Scrabble I’m afraid to say, not even if building onto another word. Trust me ,my family are Scrabble geeks of the highest order. We play with an egg timer and we are vicious ! Neat word, I’m giving a a gardening lecture on Tuesday and think I will try and use it.

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Knocker Up?

Ah, the sounds of morning …

Birds singing,

Photo by Brian Robert Marshall via Wikimedia Commons

Photo by Brian Robert Marshall via Wikimedia Commons

tea kettle pouring,

 

Photo by Patrick George via Wikimedia Commons

Photo by Patrick George via Wikimedia Commons

and the pelting of peas upon windowpanes.

Photo by Parvathisri via Wikimedia Commons

Photo by Parvathisri via Wikimedia Commons

Curious?

I thought you might be.

Pea pelting was the work of “knocker ups” in England and Ireland before alarm clocks put an end to the profession.

Note, gentle reader, that “knocking up” bore no resemblance to our modern slang terminology (ahem).

In fact, it was a valued service generally provided by elderly women and men, and occasionally undertaken by police constables looking to pad their paychecks during early-morning patrols.

Each morning, the knocker up was charged with rousing sleeping people so they could get to work on time. She would use a heavy stick called a truncheon to knock on clients’ first-floor doors. For residents above arm’s reach, the knocker up would wield a long stick, often made of bamboo, to tap upper-story windows.

Image courtesy of Au Bout de la Route blog

Image courtesy of Au Bout de la Route blog

Some of the more adventurous knocker ups, like Mary Smith of London’s Brenton Street (shown below), employed pea shooters to hurl dried peas at windows until the sleeper within woke up.

Image courtesy of Basilica Fields blog

Image courtesy of Basilica Fields blog

In return for their services, knocker-ups were paid a few pence a week.

Now you know!

 

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Hahahahaha!! Who would have guessed these old forms of alarm clocks? I love that photo of the pea shooter. What a hoot!

  2. Karlyne says:

    The photos are adorable! I’d heard of the knockers-uppers, but not pea shooter ones!

  3. Rdavisgarden says:

    I did not know that! Very nice!

  4. michele says:

    Nice to know others love words, too!

  5. OK, who remembers playing with pea shooters as a child ? and spit balls? Boy I bet the cops would be called in these days if you played with them now. Definitely a great way to be awakened, instead of an alarm clock. I am so lucky , with my own business, working from my farmette, I haven’t used an alarm clock at all except for maybe once a year to get to my Doctor’s appointment. Yep, that’s the way to do it.

  6. Kim Reeves says:

    Never heard of this before! Very interesting!

  7. Nancy says:

    Have read about “knockers-up” but loved the photos! Lisa is so right when she says that peashooters today would not be acceptable!

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