I am more than half way through my book and haven’t been
sparing a thought for my blog but there
are a couple of odds and ends I want to share.
One is the word sobeit. Is it a
word? Should it be written as three
words, so be it? I found myself using it
in my current story and when I tried sobeit, thinking it would be like albeit,
my spell check got all upset. So I spelled
it in three words. Then I looked it up –
apparently sobeit is a word which dates from1575 and albeit from 1385
(according to dictionary.com). But
sobeit looks silly so I decided to leave it as three words.
The story I am writing is about a woman, in England, who is
doing a lot of dog walking in winter. So
obviously she wears wellington boots, a term which is always abbreviated to wellies. But does my spell check accept this? Not a
chance – at every opportunity it changes the word to willies. My daughter finds this hilarious, to her the
word is plural for a vulgar term (interjection – why do men feel the need to give
names to their private parts? One of those weird things no female would ever
consider doing, or can really understand - but for many women that goes for football
too) but I am of a generation where the expression ‘gives me the willies’ to
denote a spine creeping feeling, is a normal term. Not to
mention the strange but beautiful group of Wilis (one L, no E) in the ballet Giselle. They always puzzled me a little as they are described as girls who
were jilted and died before their wedding days.
Well they must have been pretty feeble sort of characters – I am so glad
we are made of sterner stuff these days!
BTW I am not criticizing Giselle – it is one of my favourite ballets – I
saw it not too long ago at Maynardville, our local (Cape Town) open air theatre
set in wooded parklands – you could not imagine a more perfect setting – also perfect
for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But I
digress. And just in case I have readers
of my daughter’s generation I shall do a thorough search when I have finished
and make sure no ‘offensive’ words have slipped through.
Till next time J
