Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Clerihew
A clerihew is a short, funny verse which usually contains four lines. You'd think I would know that, considering I'm an author. But I didn't. I enjoyed your invented meanings for clerihew very much. Thanks for your participation. Flamingo is today's poll topster. Is that a new word? Great work anyway, Flamingo.
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Clerihuw (anglicized from Gaelic: claiomhrighthiúgh): a medieval Irish sword, similar to the Scottish Claymore
Sorry, I meant the Clerihew, of course. Clerihuw is the Welsh spelling.
A clerihew is a small, clawed mollusc that lives in the rain forests of Brazil. It lives on tiny insects and the general crud mixed in the vegetation.
Lorenzo.
Clerihew is the rather contrived and pompous sounding accent employed by Church of England vicars while giving the Sunday sermon. Most theological seminaries have Clerihew as a mandatory part of the curriculum.
Some kinds of wood split easily. Where I live, it's cedar, so that's especially good for firewood.
Clerihew is a woodcutters term for the wood that will be easily split. The more difficult woods and tree parts might be left behind when fuel wood is being gathered, but clerihew is worth taking home.
Clerihew is the exclusive aftershave/cologne made especially for the clergy which combines the aromas of dusty stone, damp wood and ecclesiastic parchment. The advertising slogan goes, "Bless yourself with Clerihew -on your armpits in the pulpit, you'll get a 'phew' from the pew, and full concentration of the congregation."
Yes, well that's why I'm not in the advertising business!
tgw44.blogspot.com
A clerihew is the curly squiggle that some people add to their signatures. You can judge how pretentious someone is by the number of clerihews in their signature.
"Clerihew" once echoed around the English countryside as people in red coats rode their horses after the hounds and chased poor little foxes. Clerihew (short for 'I have it in clear view') is the posher form of TallyHo (a phrase of Norman origin which was originally used only in stag hunting).
Here we have another lexical oddity from the Scots. To clerihew is to sneak into another person's farm and provoke the animals into braying loud enough to garner the attention of the farmer. Before, the farmer can investigate, the perpetrator of the clerihew, the clerihewer, must make a hasty escape in order to avoid detection and thereby, the foiling of their clerihew. Given this association with false alarms, a clerihew can also refer an unfounded complaint or idea, as in "That's a bunch of clarihew" or it can refer to the act of provocation as in, "James clarihewed his younger sister into biting him."
With the introduction of bicycles into Madagascar, pioneering cyclists discovered that the vegetable-like consistency of Madagascan road surfaces would adhere to the narrow tyres. The cyclist would be required to dismount at regular intervals and scrape away the build up with a strip of bark or similar found object. A handle was soon-after attached to the bark and these 'clerihews' became requisite companions on each journey. Clerihews were eventually attached to the bicycle and became the precursor for the mudguard and, more recently, the windscreen wiper.
A clerihew is a type of musical instrument. Basically, it's a long wooden tube with designs whittled into it. Each carved design has a hole in it (sizes vary), and each hole makes a different sound (it will have something to do with the design) when blown into.
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