Humdudgeon

There are moments of sunshine on even the greyest of days. I suppose it’s a matter of noticing them, before they disappear. 


One of the gifts I bought myself for Christmas is Word Perfect by Susie Dent. She apparently takes Dictionary Corner in Countdown (I don’t know about this as I have never seen it), but I did hear her talk a while ago, although she found it hard to get a word in edgeways when in the company of Stephen Fry!

She describes her book as providing Etymological Entertainment for Every Day of the Year. In other words there is a word for each day. But what wonderful words - words with a history to them, words gleaned from all over the place and words appropriate to a time of year. 

Such as today’s word - Humdudgeon. Taken from Francis Grosse’s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785). Derived from the hum in humbug and an old word dudgeon, meaning indignation and now only found in the phrase high dudgeon, it is the word for an imaginary illness that might prevent one from turning up to work, e.g. He’s in bed again, there nothing wrong with him just a humdudgeon. On the day when most people traditionally return to work or school (pre-Covid days) and might be doing this somewhat reluctantly, humdudgeon is an appropriate word for today. I remember the feeling well.