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My students and I were recently exploring the etymology of the adjective boisterous, and when we stumbled upon the Old French boiste, meaning knee joint, I couldn't help connecting the two definitions—rough and stormy with loud and unruly—with the idea of a peg leg. It just seems like this word has to come from piracy some how. Any insights? We're waiting with baited breath.
Seems to me that the mental image I get when I think about someone being boisterous would involve a pub, possible a man with a maid upon his knee. lol
I wonder if word may be through one of those odd french associations. I am thinking particularly of the 'san coulotte' who were the peasants of the french revolution. The word became associated with the undisciplined rabble but actually described their clothing. The people 'without pants' (ie. they wore trousers or even trous rather than the shorter stylish pants which ended just below the knee).
Maybe it describes the bent kneed, rolling gait of a sailor just in from a voyage?
The Online Etymological Dictionary lists a lot of conflicting maybes
boisterous
But I am charmed by your playing out of your seafaring theme by the use of baited breath rather than the prosaic bated breath. My breath has rarely, if ever, been an asset in catching anything desirable.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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