The Owl and the Pussycat

[Freckle]

Just wondered if any teacher (or anyone else who might have a view!) could help with this. DS2 has been set some literacy homework relating to Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat. One of the questions is to find 3 words in the poem which indicate that the poem was written over 100 years ago. We've come up with fowl, which these days tends to refer to poultry and game, but used to refer to any bird. We thought about runcible, but, as it was a word coined by Lear, thought this was not what is being looked for. Apart from that, we're stumped.

All the other words in the poem are in common use today - although "tarry" is possibly not used quite so much, but I certainly wouldn't assume that an author penned something over 100 years ago if tarry was used.

Any other ideas???

Shilling.

Ooooh interesting - tarry and runcible would've been my suggestions...they're words that are now generally in disuse.

As in 'Dear pig are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?'

there were shillings around when I was a girl oh 8-legged-one.

definitely agree with tarry and runcible

not sure on the 3rd.

my guesses would be
tarry, fowl, runcible and shilling

that's 4 though...
and they don't suggest over 100 years ago.....just a while ago.....

i thougth quince too

in that case (if it's just a 'while' ago)

Tarry, runcible and shilling.

You can buy Quince jam now tho'

Do pigs still have rings in the end of thier noses?

do people wrap money and honey in a £5 note

But 'runcible' is a made up word isn't it? Made up by Lear, so as such is not era-specific.

Katy I was wondering that too, just googled it and ended up on some weird NZ website where there was a discussion going on about using either 8cm rings or some sort of stapling device, it was too much to even read so I got outta there, so I think the answer's a big YES!

Freckle - how old is your DS? I couldn't see anything other than fowl but that may be because the other words, e.g. tarry are not unfamiliar. Lear often used "runcible" so don't think that would be fair. I suspect that this will be one of those homework questions where you will be able to argue the "correct" answer. I keep seeing recipes for quince at the moment so don't think that would date it.

This is roughly what we thought (i.e. DH and I). Although tarry is not used massively today, it is still used - in fact DH said he's used it himself now and again, so I wouldn't say it suggests the poem was written over 100 years ago.

Runcible was coined by Lear, so that would obviously indicate when the poem was written if you know when Lear was writing.

And please don't say shilling as that dates me somewhat!!

We even looked up Bong-tree in case it was a tree which used to exist but doesn't any more!

Even looking up these words in the dictionary doesn't help as they don't tend to date the origins of words or indicate the frequency of usage.

but if it was made up by Lear then is must be Era specific - as Lear only lived for a set amount of time

DS2 is 9, so unlikely to be familiar with this sort of thing. The work suggests looking words up in a dictionary but that doesn't necessarily help with dating.

But was "runcible" used in anything other than by Lear in his poetry? I do like it though so might drop it in to conversation now and then.

yoyo - go to google and search for runcible - lots of pages with people using it (don't know what they're all about though LOL)

think you might be overthinking this and that all the words suggested including tarry would do the trick

O. Rather than Oh?

I think that we are all trying too hard too as he is only 9. I am sure that he has only to point out the words that are old-fashioned rather than specifically of that time.

yup yoyo - would tend to agree

I think it's a fairly silly question, myself - have just recited it and can't spot a single one. Apart possibly from 'shilling'.

I did part of my MA thesis on Edward Lear. Which comes in occasionally handy for pub quizzes.