My Dearest Snout-Fair

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.

We received an email from Christine Kuhnert in Delafield, Wisconsin.

Christine sent us a list of rare and obsolete words with their brief definitions, and I was really happy to get this list because I knew only about a third of them.

It included words like throttle bottom, which is a dishonest public official. That word has been around since 1931.

And then there was snout fair. That’s a good-looking person.

Ooh, wow, snout fair. That’s lovely.

Yes, that’s been around since 1530 or so.

And then there was ejectamenta, which is material ejected from a volcano.

Now, there were 31 of these words, and that’s significant because what made these words really special is that they were part of a challenge for an online group that Christine belongs to.

It’s a Facebook group for calligraphy enthusiasts.

Oh, that makes a lot of sense.

Oh, Grant, you’ve got to visit this group.

It’s called Copper Plate Script for All.

And each month, as an exercise, they’re given a list of words like these and definitions to practice.

And if they’re pleased with their results, they can post a photo.

And I joined the group, and these samples are stunningly gorgeous.

It reminded me of what we used to say about somebody with a beautiful voice.

You know, you’d say, oh, I could listen to her read the phone book.

It doesn’t matter.

Yeah, but you’re saying you could read the phone book in calligraphy.

Well, yeah, this is the visual equivalent of that.

And it got me to thinking about how we render words visually, you know, the clothes that we put on words and their effect on us.

Because there’s so much that we take for granted about, say, how expressive somebody’s handwriting can be or how easily we change fonts in a document and how that feels a little bit different.

Or even how our reading experience can be affected by the kind of typeface that’s used.

It’s sort of, you know, the clothes that we put on words and how that makes us feel.

I agree with all of that.

And I’m thinking about the words that you mentioned, throttle bottom, like what’s going to happen to that double T when a calligrapher gets a hold of it, right?

That’s amazing.

Like my name is Barrett. I have two R’s and two T’s.

And cool things can happen with double letters.

And then I’m thinking about ejecta menta, the J.

The J probably is a calligrapher’s dream.

What are they going to do with that hook underneath the bass line?

Are they going to bring it up under the E?

Cool things can happen with these interesting letters and complicated words.

It’s so interesting to me that you look at it that way.

I was thinking about how throttle bottom, a dishonest public official, actually looks beautiful.

The contradiction, yeah.

Throttle bottom.

It’s got two double T’s there.

I’m just thinking like a clever calligrapher could do amazing things with those.

Now you’ve got me thinking about that.

And the three O’s and the big T at the beginning.

Oh, man.

Well, right.

And the B with that’s kind of, it’s like two pillows on a bed, right?

Well, maybe you’re one pillow.

So what’s the name of that Facebook group again?

The Facebook group is called Copperplate Script for All.

You know, there are lots of different scripts, but this one is specifically Copperplate.

If you are well known for your calligraphy or your handwriting, boy, Martha and I would love to see samples of it.

You can find lots of ways to reach us by email or social media on our website at waywordradio.org.

Or you can tell us how you got into calligraphy on our voicemail, toll free in the United States and Canada, 1-877-929-9673.