I'm reminded of a passage from Anne Carson's introduction to her translation of Sappho, in which she quotes from a second century-A.D. lexicographer named Pollux: "A word *beudos* found in Sappho is the same as the word *kimberikon* which means a short transparent dress." Carson: "Who would not like to know more about this garment?"
Could be pants? We don't want to think too literally I suppose. Back when I was a teenager I obtained a pair of soft-soled brogues, quite fancy, and my Dad said "bought yourself some brothel creepers I see". He didn't mean that they were literally shoes for creeping about brothels in: he was mocking how fancy they were, how much of a peacock I was being, how little noise they would make (you wouldn't want to go clattering about a brothel, drawing attention to yourself, obviously). Something similar could be at work here: not that the Greek actually had special shoes for running to banquets in, but that, I don't know, silk slippers might evoke luxury, orientalism and "we all know what those easterners are like, all gluttons always rushing off to feast". But maybe pants would make more sense in this context.
I suppose if you're running off to banquets, the implication is gluttony at someone else's expense, so it would be "unmanly oriental self-indulgence" plus "you're a ligger/freeloader/moocher". I can see that for shoes, now you've brought in the metaphorical penumbra around "brothel creepers". Or "co-respondent shoes" for that matter. Or "fuck-me shoes". Versatile zones of valence, feet.
Ligger comes via Middle English liggere; equivalent to lig + -er, where "lig" is an archaic way of saying, or spelling, lie. So a ligger is something that "lies" in the sense of lying down, or lying over. The word means variously: the horizontal timber of a scaffolding; a plank that lies across a stream used as a footbridge; a coverlet for a bed. I suppose I can see how a "ligger", as somebody just lying across the top of something, somebody, not putting in the effort but being carried, leads to the modern sense. "Ledge" comes from "lig" too; as does "ledger", I suppose because the lines ruled in such a book lie, like ledges, one on top of the other.
Yes, and earlier staunch Horace wrote, "Persicos odi". I just saw a translation of this as "I hate peaches"...
... and Colley Cibber's Restoration comedy "Love's Last Shift" was translated into French under the title "La dernière chemise de l'amour."
I'm reminded of a passage from Anne Carson's introduction to her translation of Sappho, in which she quotes from a second century-A.D. lexicographer named Pollux: "A word *beudos* found in Sappho is the same as the word *kimberikon* which means a short transparent dress." Carson: "Who would not like to know more about this garment?"
We'll all be wearing them in my utopian science-fiction future.
I find myself singing "trechedipnum" to the tune of "Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka we love you".
So, a medallion, patchouli, and... bell-bottoms? Harem pants? A sarong?
Could be pants? We don't want to think too literally I suppose. Back when I was a teenager I obtained a pair of soft-soled brogues, quite fancy, and my Dad said "bought yourself some brothel creepers I see". He didn't mean that they were literally shoes for creeping about brothels in: he was mocking how fancy they were, how much of a peacock I was being, how little noise they would make (you wouldn't want to go clattering about a brothel, drawing attention to yourself, obviously). Something similar could be at work here: not that the Greek actually had special shoes for running to banquets in, but that, I don't know, silk slippers might evoke luxury, orientalism and "we all know what those easterners are like, all gluttons always rushing off to feast". But maybe pants would make more sense in this context.
I suppose if you're running off to banquets, the implication is gluttony at someone else's expense, so it would be "unmanly oriental self-indulgence" plus "you're a ligger/freeloader/moocher". I can see that for shoes, now you've brought in the metaphorical penumbra around "brothel creepers". Or "co-respondent shoes" for that matter. Or "fuck-me shoes". Versatile zones of valence, feet.
How does "ligger" come to mean "freeloader"? An etymology I can't see.
I do not know. I wonder if our host does? He knows most things verbal, in several languages.
Ligger comes via Middle English liggere; equivalent to lig + -er, where "lig" is an archaic way of saying, or spelling, lie. So a ligger is something that "lies" in the sense of lying down, or lying over. The word means variously: the horizontal timber of a scaffolding; a plank that lies across a stream used as a footbridge; a coverlet for a bed. I suppose I can see how a "ligger", as somebody just lying across the top of something, somebody, not putting in the effort but being carried, leads to the modern sense. "Ledge" comes from "lig" too; as does "ledger", I suppose because the lines ruled in such a book lie, like ledges, one on top of the other.
You see? Just as I predicted.