Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tuesday Word Bytes: Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm!



I LOVE words!  I think language is the best part of being a human.  There's nothing as good as taking a new word and rolling it around the inside of my mouth and feeling how it tastes.

Todays word;


Bayard (bay - ard)
From the French.  It was the name of a legendary horse given to 

Renaud of Montauban  by the emperor, Charlemagne.  

He was a large, bay colored horse who was very brave in battle.
A true hero of equine pulchritude.

Later, it became a back handed insult.  When a person was called a Bayard, it was not in reference to being brave and handsome but was used as an antonym of the word; someone stupid, cowardly, ugly, clownish.

One example that comes to mind of a Bayard is 
Bottom, from  "A Mid Summernight's Dream" by William Shakespeare.

Bottom is a goofy man who thinks he's pretty smart.  (He's really a pretty sorry clown!)
He gets himself into trouble with a fairy and ends up with the head of a donkey on his shoulders.

Another character that I think of as a Bayard is Baron Von Munchausen.   Who, by the way, rode a fine and heroic horse named Bucephalus.  Baron Von Munchausen was always having outlandish adventures which were always getting him thick into fantastic trouble.  

Not, altogether, a smart person!




What's your favorite word this week?















4 comments:

Stephanie said...

This was quite fascinating, Judy :) I always learn something new from you. Thanks for sharing at ROI and have a lovely day!

Hugs!

Scrappy quilter said...

Fascinating indeed.

Wilma said...

You write interesting posts, Judy.
Thank you for sharing.
Have a great day !
Wilma. Shabby Royale.

Bethany Carson said...

Neat to learn a new word! I love words as well...the one I can think of at the moment is chryselephantine.