Posted by Jock on July 22, 2006 at 20:31:19 from 87.105.81.146 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Sequels posted by PeterH on July 22, 2006 at 19:18:07:
Yes, I suppose that a phrase like 'Jibbooms and bobstays' is dateless really, in that 'jibbooms' etc still exist, but I would submit that the concept of inventing an expletive for children's use is a very 1930/40s thing.
Peter, First of all, my apologies for the abrubt way I spiralled off the main thread to persue a private interest of my own. It struck me after I posted my message that it could have been read as dismissive of your contribution to the "Sequels" thread. It certainly wasn't. I'm following that debate with interest, but at this stage only as an observer.
Secondly, if you have any other examples of inventing an expletive for children's use in 1930s books, I would be very interested in any references that you could provide.
Thirdly, there really was a little girl who was brought up by her father on a sailing schooner at the close of the 19th century. She was a precocious child who hatched elaborate schemes to get her own way. She spoke and swore the way sailors did, so much so that her father's attempt to reintroduce her to polite society ended as a gastly failure. Her biography would have been circulating as a MS about the time AR was penning SA and I have often wondered if he ever came across the book.