What bunkum I cried. What gobbledygook they proclaimed.

[Soph0571]

As one dashed out the door, an absolutely spiffing idea occurred to me. On returning to my abode one made haste to the parlour and with great exuberance and in a parlance that I determined would surely galvanise my audience, I imparted my idea. Oh my! One failed to consider the xanthippe and the mammothrept. One must also bear in mind that a beastly ragamuffin had seemingly apported from nowhere and the scurrilous chap was simply brutish. Now I consider myself a rather good egg and was a tad flummoxed, by jove, at the reaction of the termagent and the babalevante. They were blithering idiots to claim my stupendous idea was balderdash. What bunkum I cried! What gobbledygook they proclaimed!

I must confess that at this point I got rather rambunctious. The jaunt must be planned. I was absolutely smitten with the idea. It was marvellous! Super! But the detractors to whom I spoke called it superfluous, claimed I was a flibbertigibbet. Well this old bean started to caterwaul. The jaunt was to meet a rather dapper old chap who was generally a jolly good show, I was confounded that they would try and deny me.

Pip pip

[Fla Dem]

1. I may be totally ignorant, but do not know what the heck this is all about.

Is this some attempt at literary pose? Is it from some mid-18th century writings? Frankly could make no sense of this posting. Perhaps others with more imagination will. I had to look up some of the words used and can find no logical usage for them. If nothing else, this post occupied about 10 minutes of my time on a quiet Sunday morning.

Xanthippe (/zænˈ?ɪpi/; Greek: ????ί???, Greek pronunciation: [kʰsantʰíp̚pɛː]; 5th – 4th century BCE) was an ancient Athenian, the wife of Socrates and mother of their three sons: Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus. She was likely much younger than Socrates, perhaps by as much as 40 years.

A child brought up by its grandmother; a spoiled child. O, you are a more mammothrept in judgment. - B. Jonson. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G.

termagent
1.a harsh-tempered or overbearing woman.
2.HISTORICAL
an imaginary deity of violent and turbulent character, often appearing in morality plays.

babalevante No definition found for this word.

[Soph0571]

2. It was just a bit of fun about how the English language has changed

xanthippe - in Victorian England was a derogatory term for a quarrelsome woman

mammothrept - a person of immature judgement

babalevante - someone who makes crap jokes

termagent - you have right

So the story goes:

AS I ran out the door I had a great idea. When I got home I went into the living room to tell everyone my fantastic idea. I was very excited, but I forgot who I was dealing with. She just wanted to fight with me and he treated it all as a joke. There was a bit of a rough looking chap there who looked like he had done ten rounds with Tyson. I was confused by the ill tempered woman and the chap who really thought himself a comedian – even though he wasn’t
Etc etc
As I said just a bit of fun on how the English language has changed over time

[Fla Dem]

3. Thanks for the translation.

And yes, our manner of speaking certainly has changed over the centuries.

I wasn't being critical, just had no idea what it was all about.

[malthaussen]

4. So they didn't want to go visit Grandpa?

Editorially speaking, I don't think one is to mix the personal pronoun with the impersonal one. One is considered third-person, so it should be "an absolutely spiffing idea occurred to her" (or "him," as may be)

Cheerio. (Which is a cereal, I believe)

-- Mal