regshoe: Close-up of a grey heron, its beak open as if laughing (Heron 2)
regshoe ([personal profile] regshoe) wrote2021-10-23 06:12 pm
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Flight of the Heron read-along: Part II chapters 1-2

Charlie is my darling, the Young Chevalier...

Flight of the Heron (under the title The Jacobite Trilogy) is doing very well in Yuletide sign-ups—3 requests and 4 offers at present :D

Next week we'll read the second half of Part II, chapters 3 and 4.
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regshoe: Redwing, a brown bird with a red wing patch, perched in a tree (Default)

[personal profile] regshoe 2021-10-24 11:46 am (UTC)(link)
The other thing that makes me think it's not 'spy' is what comes before: 'I did not think that I was hampering myself with a...' —hampering yourself with a spy would be a strange way to put it, as opposed to being endangered/undermined/betrayed by one. It makes me feel better to know a poet mentioning this in a serious book couldn't figure it out either...!

(Surely if it was anything beginning with SH, she'd write 'sh---' rather than 's---'—anyway...)
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)

[personal profile] luzula 2021-10-24 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Surely one would not say 'hampering myself with a shit'.

Okay, I've gone through all the S words in this slang dictionary, and found these insults:

SAUCE BOX. A term of familiar raillery, signifying a bold
or forward person.
SCAB. A worthless man or woman.
SCOUNDREL. A man void of every principle of honour.
SCRUB. A low mean fellow, employed in all sorts of dirty work.
SLAG. A slack-mettled fellow, one not ready to resent an
affront.

The only one that fits the situation is 'sauce box', but I don't know if it really sounds right. Possibly 'scab', but that does seem a bit harsh! 'Slag' is about the opposite of Ewen at that point. : )
regshoe: Redwing, a brown bird with a red wing patch, perched in a tree (Default)

[personal profile] regshoe 2021-10-24 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent research :D Although I agree that none of them really fit—'a term of familiar raillery' doesn't sound like the serious insult Charles was about to use, and 'scab' seems too generic as well as too harsh.
hyarrowen: (Action Hero)

[personal profile] hyarrowen 2021-10-25 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
The Beer sisters, and their mother, were reading the book in the early 1930s, much closer in time to publication date than we are, and they couldn't work it out. It'll probably remain forever a mystery. Personally I'm still inclined to 'spy' - in the sense of "You're Lochiel's eyes and ears amongst my staff and that's going to curtail my freedom to do whatever I like," rather than the espionage/enemy agent sense. I suppose 'snitch' would be nearer the mark in present-day lingo. It's obviously a dreadful insult anyway.
regshoe: Redwing, a brown bird with a red wing patch, perched in a tree (Default)

[personal profile] regshoe 2021-10-25 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
The 1930s? Such a missed opportunity that they didn't just write to Broster and ask her!

in the sense of "You're Lochiel's eyes and ears amongst my staff and that's going to curtail my freedom to do whatever I like," rather than the espionage/enemy agent sense

Hmm, that does make more sense! Perhaps it is...
cahn: (Default)

[personal profile] cahn 2021-10-28 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
"Snitch" was my guess as to the mysterious s-word! Though maybe it's too modern a word for that?
hyarrowen: (Action Hero)

[personal profile] hyarrowen 2021-10-28 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
Online etymology says "informer," 1785, probably from underworld slang meaning "the nose" (1700), which apparently developed from an earlier meaning "fillip on the nose" (1670s). Snitcher in same sense is from 1827. More etymologically-inclined persons might be able to share more light on it!

So it's not far off the date, but perhaps a bit too slangy for a Prince who grew up in Rome.

Definitely getting there, though.
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