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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Jun 23

The bust of Tolkien in Oxford’s English Faculty Library, 2015 vs. 2025. He’s aged more gracefully than I have.

Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 29

Still, I’d like to think she actually dressed like Minerva on days out. A serviceable cuirass, a shield for all weather, and an owl peeping out from under her helmet.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 29

Elizabeth Carter offers her view on fashionable accessories in 1748:

‘I should sooner fan myself with a cabbage-leaf than lay out any sum of money, in ornaments, that would buy a book.’

Elizabeth Carter as Minerva, National Portrait Gallery.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 23

Not just Victorians/Edwards, of course. As a child, I was told that ‘horses sweat, men perspire, and ladies glow (or glisten)’. The earliest uses of the saying I can find are from the Gilded Age of America.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 23

I love finding yet-to-be-revised pockets of Victorian/Edwardian propriety on OED Online.

Here’s a note under SWEAT (first published in 1912) advising that the verb is ‘avoided in refined speech in the ordinary physical senses’; the preferred word is PERSPIRE.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 17

And my favourite, ‘Fresh from the Salon’ Dyche (1774).

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 17

‘AI Doll’ Dyche (1802)

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 17

‘Young Boris Johnson’ Dyche (also 1764, a bumper year for Dyches)

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 17

‘Demon-Possessed’ Dyche (1764)

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 17

‘Stoned at 10AM’ Dyche (1788)

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 17

The teacher with a thousand faces.

Thomas Dyche’s Guide to the English Tongue (1702) proved so popular that it was still being reprinted in 1821. Almost every edition had Dyche’s portrait at the front. Almost every portrait looked like it was of an entirely different person.

A curated selection:

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 15

If trying to get onto Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross doesn’t work out for you, might I suggest Platform 9 next door? It’ll get you to Cambridge, which is only 200 years younger.

King's College Chapel seen from the Backs.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 14

The 2nd edition of The Feminine Monarchie: or the Historie of Bees by grammarian and part-time apiarist Charles Butler. A notice in 1634 announced that the book, having been ‘so long by sinister means detained’, would soon come out in a 3rd edition.

Who was trying to suppress the truth about bees?!

Frontispiece and title page (image © Forum Auctions).

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 10

It’s not all fun and games, though. Moxon reports that a workman was once whacked ‘with so much violence, that he presently Pissed Blood, and shortly after dyed of it’.

Maybe HR departments are a good thing.

Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 10

If someone refuses to pay a solace, ‘The Workmen take him by force, and lay him on his Belly’ over a stone block, while another uses a paperboard to administer ‘Eleven blows on his Buttocks’.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 10

Joseph Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, a 17thC treatise on the printing press, is a delight.

A printing-house was customarily called a ‘chapel’. Workers who committed faults in the chapel—swearing, fighting, being drunk, leaving a candle burning at night, etc.—had to pay a fine called a ‘solace’.

Title page and illustration from one instalment of Mechanick Exercises.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Apr 3

I've made the Anne-ual pilgrimage to Halifax to celebrate Lister's 234th birthday with @annelistersociety.bsky.social ! How has it been four years already?

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Mar 28

I once went through the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English to collect all the attested Middle English spellings of ‘through’ (476).

doruȝ, dorw, dorwe, dorwgh, dourȝh, drowgȝ, durghe, durwe, throw, throght, throwe, thurgh, thuro, thurough, throwe, thogh, thour, thoure, thourgh, thourr, thourw, thourwȝ, thourȝ, thorgh, thorw, thorwȝ, thorur, thorch, thorew, thorewe, thorffe, thorg, thorgh, thorghe, thorght, thorghw, thorghwe, thorgth, thorh, thoro, thorogh, thoroghe, thoroght, thorohe, thoroo, thorou, thorough, thoroughe, thorought, thorouh, thorouȝ, thorouȝh, thorow, thorowe, thorowg, thorowgh, thorowghe, thorowght, thorowh, thorowut, thorowȝ, thorowȝt, thoroȝ, thorrou, thorrow, thorth, thorthe, thoru, thorue, thorugh, thorughe, thorught, thorugth, thoruh, thoruth, thoruȝ, thoruȝh, thorv, thorw, thorwe, thorwgh, thorwh, thorwȝ, thorwȝe, thorȝ, thorȝe, thorȝh, thorȝoh, thorȝt, thorȝw, thorȝwe, thour, thourgh, thourghe, thourght, thourh, thourhe, thourow, thourth, thourw, thourȝ, thourȝe, thow, thowur, thowe, thowffe, thowr, thowrgh, thowrow, thrawth, threw, thro, throch, throcht, throgh, throghe, throghet, throght, throghte, throighe, throrough, throu, throuche, throue, throug, THROUGH, throughe, throught, throuȝ, throuȝe, throuȝht, throve, throw, throwe, throwg, throwgh, throwght, throwh, throwhg, throwr, throwth, throwȝ, throwȝe, throȝ, throȝe, throȝgh, throȝghe, throȝh, throȝhe, throȝt, thruch, thrue, thrug, thrugh, thrughe, thrught, thrughte, thruh, thruth, thruȝ, thruȝe, thruȝhe, thrvoo, thrw, thrwe, thrwgh, thrwght, thrygh, thuht, thur, thurch, thurew, thurg, thurge, thurgeh, thurgh, thurgh-out, thurghe, thurght, thurghte, thurgth, thurgwe, thurh, thurhe, thurhge, thurhgh, thurow, thurowe, thurth, thurthe, thuru, thurugh, thurv, thurw, thurwe, thurȝ, thurȝe, thurȝh, thurȝhg, thurȝt, thurȝth, thwrgh, thwrw, torgh, torghe, torw, torwe, trghug, trogh, troght, trough, trow, trowe, trowgh, trowght, trugh, trughe, trught, twrw, yerowe, yorowe, yurowe, yhorh, yhoru, yhrow, yhurgh, yhurght, your, yora, yorch, yorgh, yorghe, yorh, yoro, yorou, yoroue, yorough...

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Mar 25

Grose offers a synonym from Gloucester: MUCKSHUT. But I’m with Exmoor on this one.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Mar 25

Today’s word is DIMMET, ‘the dusk of the evening (Exmoor).’
(Francis Grose, A Provincial Glossary, 1787)

Illustration courtesy of Port Meadow, Oxford.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Mar 11

Belated congratulations, Zoe! It was a superbly presented paper and a great contribution to #AnneLister studies.

BSECS @bsecs.bsky.social · Feb 17

CONGRATULATIONS to the winner of the #BSECS2025 President's Prize, Zoe Copeman! Zoe's paper 'Women's access to anatomical knowledge in #18thC Britain and France' used Anne Lister's diaries to show how women had access to surgical imagery, but often didn't interpret it correctly or fully 🗃️ 1/2

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Mar 6

After months of grey, a clear blue sky over Trinity College Chapel. Gather ye vitamins while ye may.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Feb 26

Could this substation sign contain the most inappropriate use of Comic Sans in the history of typography?

A safety sign that begins ‘HELP PREVENT A TRAGEDY’.

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Feb 21

I guess Americans whose accents have the cot–caught merger would pronounce ‘hock’ and ‘hawk’ the same way, but what about Americans who don’t? Do they favour one pronunciation/spelling? Would Dustin Hoffman yell “Hey! I’m hawkin’ here” or “I’m hockin’ here”?

Montresor’s Groucho Puppet @winteron.bsky.social · Feb 21

had to make sure I was using the right word/spelling. turns out both are acceptable

Do You 'hock' or 'hawk' a loogie?

A question for the ages

www.merriam-webster.com

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Stephen Turton @stephenturton.bsky.social · Feb 12

Thank you! I don’t think it’s possible to write dully about Lister, TBH. The source texts are so remarkable that they could make even the most turgid prose sound gripping.

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