Sunday, June 8, 2008

Word of the Week (June 8 - 15) maid

June 8 - 15 Word of the Week

maid n

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

maid n OED sb1 1, 3 arch exc dial; EDD sb 1, 4 for sense 1.
1 A woman; a young unmarried girl or daughter; freq as term of address; MAIDEN. 1858 [LOWELL] i, 15 I'll carry this bit of a thing to my maid.

1887 Evening Telegram Christmas No 9 [to wife:] Pray for us, maid; we're in God's hands. . . 'I've brought a Christmas Box for 'ee, Bets, my maid,' said her husband.

1907 DUNCAN 150 'Who is this person? Man or woman?' ' Maid,' said Parson Stump.

1933 GREENLEAF xxv So, too. . .'maid' [is used] for girl'—or rather for 'wornan,' as I have heard a grandmother addressed as 'maid.' T 80/2-64 If you get caught up there wi' a maid, 'twas murder! Snowballed an' sodded or whatever time o' the year 'twas! T 194/7-65 An' the little girl want to know if I was goin' [to the] barracks; a little small maid. C 68-5 It is very common in [Bonavista] to hear a person say, 'I met Jack Smith's maid at the store today'; reference is being made either to his wife or his daughter.

1975 COOK 12 He wor jest somebody dying and I wor just a slip of a maid. 2 Attrib, comb maid racket: courting; see RACKET2. T 141/68-652 An' we'd go down practically every night on the maid racket. maid teacher: unmarried female schoolteacher. T 169/206-651 We had two [teachers]; there was always a maid teacher in lower part an' a man teacher in upper part.Supplement:maid n SED iv, 925 'girl' So W Co D Do. 1

1983 FROUDE 212 Supreme they rule oer welling hearts/the maids and wives of newfoundland.

1984 GOUGH 49 'Maud, my maid, what would he want with a place like this? Less he floats it up to Toronto on barrels.'

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

No comments: