03 May 2008

fizzle

It's silly, I know, but it's also funny:

fizzle, v.
To break wind without noise

or as a noun,
"The action of breaking wind quietly."

And Oxford English Dictionary cites this quotation as the earliest usage of the noun:
"1598 FLORIO, Sloffa, a fizzle, a fiste, a close farte."

The image of some guy speaking Early Modern English in the 1598 Anglo-Saxon world, and writing this, of all things to write . . . what better thing to be immortalized for than these few and beautiful words that offer us such valuable information about what English was and is?

Florio, thank you for your contribution to the English language.

2 comments:

rachel b. said...

Haha! I especially like the way fart was spelled in 1598. It looks so much more elegant with that extra "e" on the end.

Bryce said...

Um, did you know that some BYU scientist came up with carbonated yogurt and named it "Fizzle"? This is hilarious to me.

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