There’s a word for the first person to walk through your door on New Year’s Day. The word is quaaltagh, and it’s used on the Isle of Man. This Manx term is one of many linguistic delights in a book Martha recommends for word lovers: The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities: A Yearbook of Forgotten Words, by Paul Anthony Jones. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Qaaltagh”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. Think back to New Year’s Day last year. Do you remember who the first person
Was to walk into your home? No, I don’t. That year or the year before? Never, really. The year before
That? No. I recently learned that there is a word for that person, the first person to walk into
Your home in the new year. Yes. And that word is Qualtuk. Now, let me explain. It’s spelled a
Little bit strangely. It’s Q-U-A-A-L-T-A-G-H. Qualtuk. Yes. And the reason it looks weird is
Because it’s Manx. It comes from the Isle of Man, where there was a tradition of keeping track of
The first person to enter your house on New Year’s Day. And in fact, there are superstitions
Involved in which person that was. You didn’t want the person to be light-complected for one thing.
Interesting. So dark-complected people mean good luck for the year?
Yes, apparently, according to some 19th century texts. And I wanted to recommend a book of a lot
Of really interesting words like that. It’s called The Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities,
A Yearbook of Forgotten Words. It’s by Paul Anthony Jones.
That’s excellent. And you know, we will be talking about other books we recommend later in the show.
But if you’ve got books that you’re reading and enjoying and would like to share with us
And have us share with our listeners, give us a call 877-929-9673,
Email words@waywordradio.org, or tell the Facebook group about it.
