{"id":80550,"date":"2014-12-05T17:29:22","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T22:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=80550"},"modified":"2014-12-08T10:29:07","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T15:29:07","slug":"to-s-r-crockett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/05\/to-s-r-crockett\/","title":{"rendered":"To S. R. Crockett"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bank_house\"<\/a>

Bank House, Penicuik: Crockett lived here from around 1886, and J. M. Barrie often stayed with him.<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, the Oxford English Dictionary<\/em> brings us a splendid word of the day: the little-used\u00a0draffsack<\/em>. Because we can always use alternatives to glutton<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with glutton<\/em>! Glutton<\/em> is one of the finest of all words. It is evocative, it feels delicious in the mouth, and it\u2019s also an alternate name for a wolverine. (Personally, I\u2019d much sooner see a movie called Glutton<\/em>. Although, I guess Hugh Jackman would have to put on a few pounds.)<\/p>\n

But draffsack <\/em>refines the concept. A draffsack is not merely a glutton, but a lazy glutton\u2014as opposed to all the industrious, Diamond Jim Brady\u2013style gluttons one encounters. It can also mean \u201cpaunch.\u201d From the old Norse word draff <\/em>(\u201cbrewing derivative\u201d) and sack <\/em>(\u201csack\u201d), it is, apparently, Scottish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which brings us to Samuel Rutherford Crockett. The OED<\/em> cites the usage of the term in Crockett\u2019s 1894 novel\u00a0The Lilac Sunbonnet<\/em>. S. R. Crockett\u2019s career was a result of his era\u2019s mania for Lowland Scots fiction; his many, many sentimental romances include\u00a0Flower o\u2019 the Corn<\/i>,\u00a0The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion<\/i>,\u00a0Mad Sir Uchtred<\/i>,\u00a0and, of course, his 1894 breakout, The Sticket Minister.\u00a0<\/i>Crockett was an ordained minister, and many of his forty titles had Christian themes, as well as muckle lowland color and Victorian-style syrup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crockett knew his fellow Scot J. M. Barrie, and to the extent he\u2019s discussed today, it\u2019s usually in association with the Peter Pan <\/em>author. (The latter was a frequent guest at Crockett\u2019s Kirkcudbrightshire\u00a0home, Bank House.) In his day, he was a successful writer in his own right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In any case, last night saw the airing of NBC\u2019s Peter Pan Live,<\/em>\u00a0and as such, today J. M. Barrie is in disgrace. Crockett, typically the Smee to Barrie\u2019s Hook, shall have his moment in the sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Crockett\u2019s own immortal words,\u00a0\u201cSleep yer ain sleeps, ye pair o\u2019 draft-sacks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Okay, maybe those words are mortal.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, the Oxford English Dictionary brings us a splendid word of the day: the little-used\u00a0draffsack. Because we can always use alternatives to glutton.\u00a0 Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with glutton! Glutton is one of the finest of all words. It is evocative, it feels delicious in the mouth, and it\u2019s also an alternate name for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[16286,2091,4734,687,16287,3413,2393],"class_list":["post-80550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-draffsack","tag-gluttony","tag-j-m-barrie","tag-language","tag-samuel-rutherford-crockett","tag-scotland","tag-words"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOn Samuel Rutherford Crockett and the Word \u201cDraffsack\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on the OED\u2019s Word of the Day, \u201cdraffsack,\u201d used most memorably by the Scottish writer Samuel Rutherford Crockett.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/05\/to-s-r-crockett\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To S. 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