By Jacquie Foote So … children in Geauga for most…
By Jacquie Foote So ... children in Geauga for most of the 1800s were no longer expected to be adult-like at the age of 5.…
By Jacquie Foote
So … children in Geauga for most of the 1800s were no longer expected to be adult-like at the age of 5. They expected to learn from adults as well as from their own experiences.
We have considered some of the names children might call each other at that time, noting the greater variety of invective available. Ninnyhammer (foolish person) was often shortened to Ninny, which was also a good stand-in for Nincompoop (stupid person whose incompetence is very obvious). Actually, since Nincompoop was considered rather strong language for youngsters … especially for girls … Ninny was a handy bit of invective to have in ones arsenal.
If a child might call another child a ninny, what might a parent call his/her child?
Of course, there was always flibbertigibbet (sometimes spelled and pronounced flibberdigibbet). Dating from the 1600s, this interesting little pejorative was used to characterize a chatterbox, a flighty person. It is thought flibbertigibbet started as a nonsense word meant to sound like fast-talking. Interestingly enough, it was also the name of a devil or fiend.
In Shakespeare’s King Lear (IV, I (1605)), Flibbertigibbet is one of the five fiends Edgar (in the pose of a beggar, Tom o’ Bedlam) claimed possessed him. It seems that Shakespeare got the name from Samuel Harsnett’s Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), where one reads of 40 fiends that Jesuits cast out and among which was Flibbertigibbet. It has also been used as a synonym for Puck. It is believed that its use as a nickname for a character in Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth, gained Flibbertigibbet the meaning of an impish child.
Actually, being a flibbertigibbet wasnt so bad as this bit of invective was frequently used with a shake of the head and laughter. (Think of a modern child being called a little imp.) So, you could be admonished for your flighty, chatterbox ways and still told to Put on your best bib and tucker, companys coming.
The 1800s Geaugan child would quickly translate that order to mean, Put on your best clothes, companys coming. In those times with no TV, computers, movies, iPhones, CDs, VCRs, Blue Rays, or even radios, visiting was a major source of entertainment (and, often, special food treats), something any child would welcome even if it meant getting dressed up.
But what did it mean, this bib and tucker thing? Well, in the beginning it referred only to ladies wear. The phrase originated not in any figurative sense, but literally, both bibs and tuckers being items of women’s clothing from the 17th to late 19th centuries. The phrase best bib and tucker came into common use in the 18th century and was soon applied to any persons good clothes.
Those early bibs were somewhat like modern day bibs, although they were mainly decorative and not especially used to protect clothes from spilled food as they are now. Tuckers were lace pieces fitted over the bodice and tucked in. They continued to be worn by fashionable ladies until the late 1800s. They were sometimes called pinners* (when they were pinned on) or modesty pieces (as they allowed a lady wearing a dress with a low neckline to bend over without worry).
* Yes, the pinner was the precursor of pinafore … originally pin-a-fore, or pinned on the front.
For information on the events at the Geauga County Historical Society’s Burton Century Village Museum, call 440-834-1492 or visit www.geauga
historical.org.
