So, after you scurryfunge about (see last week's Slang-o-rama entry) and the wintry celebrations have come and gone, it may be time to engage in a little crawmassing. Which is ye olde English word meaning...
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(at least according to the BBC, which should know these kinds of things)...
[T]o go around begging gifts at Christmas. It also means to gather up, or go through the remnants of a festive feast.
Crawmassing also appears in an article in The Independent, "11 Christmas words the English language has forgotten," with a little bit about its (possible) origin:
Gathering up or going through the remnants of a Christmas meal is called crawmassing. It’s probably based on comassing, an earlier word referring to someone who begs from their friends or neighbours rather than strangers.
It would be nice to know when crawmassing came into being, but the road to knowledge about this word is more like an overgrown deer path in the woods, and I couldn't find much more.
Oh well. I have presents to wrap and consumables to fix for Friday, and crawmassing to look forward to on Saturday. I'd best get busy!
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| Now this has excellent crawmassing potential. Image by vivienviv0 from Pixabay |
Wishing happy and healthy holidays to you and yours this season!
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| Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay |
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