Mapping tools are becoming more useful for educational purposes. visualthesaurus.com has a great word mapping tool. The word for today was harlequin. My favorite related term has to be merry andrew.I couldn't resist. From Wikipedia:
The following passage from Isaac D'Israeli (1766-1848) (describing the period around 1230 c.e.) illustrates its use: "In the church of Paris, and in several other cathedrals of the kingdom, was held the Feast of Fools or madmen.
"The priests and clerks assembled elected a pope, an archbishop, or a bishop, conducted them in great pomp to the church, which they entered dancing, masked, and dressed in the apparel of women, animals, and merry-Andrews; sung infamous songs, and converted the altar into a beaufet, where they ate and drank during the celebration of the holy mysteries; played with dice; burned, instead of incense, the leather of their old sandals; ran about, and leaped from seat to seat, with all the indecent postures with which the merry-Andrews know how to amuse the populace."
There must be a Monty Python connection somewhere!
1 comment:
Great, you had to go and make me learn something new for today. Well, there goes today's quota of new info. I'll be worthless now for the rest of the day (yea yea, I know, like I wasn't already worthless before).
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