Balderdash for the Medieval Gay #46

(a compendium of queer words for the modern fag with a passion for the Middle Ages added hebdomadally on the Sabbath day)

46.) Roc
-noun singular

a.) A legendary raptor of gargantuan proportions said to be capable of carrying off and devouring prey as large as elephants.*

[Origin: From the Persian رخ rokh or rukh meaning "chariot" or "boat."]

*Tales of enormous flying beasts carrying off large prey including humans appears with curious frequency in ancient Arabic, Sanskrit, and Greek mythology to name a few. Marco Polo gives a wonderful description of the Roc carrying off elephants in the 13th century, and later in 1594, the illustrator Theodor de Bry depicted the roc destroying entire ships in revenge for destruction of its giant egg, as recounted in the fifth voyage of Sinbad the Sailor. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela reported a story somehow akin to this in which shipwrecked sailors had themselves carried off desert islands by wrapping ox-hides round them and letting griffins carry them off as if they were cattle. Even the scene of mighty Zeus carrying off Ganymede in the form of a giant eagle comes to mind as reminiscent of the roc legend.

Balderdash for the Medieval Gay #45

(a compendium of queer words for the modern fag with a passion for the Middle Ages added hebdomadally on the Sabbath day)

45.) Uranism
-noun singular

a.) Homosexuality in males.*

[Origin: from German uranismus and ultimately the Greek ουρανιος meaning "heavenly" or "spiritual."]

*Coined by Dr. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) to describe a condition in which a female soul (or psyche) governs a male body, the word has since fallen into obscurity. Although Dr. Ulrichs saw uranism as a “condition” afflicting men, at least his etymological choice of appellation was graceful, poetic, and historically sound. At last there seems to be a word for our tribe whose meaning could be interpreted as celebratory; one that harkens back to glorious ancient days when even greatly venerated divinities appreciated the celestial and spiritual beauty of our tribesmen!

Balderdash for the Medieval Gay #44

(a compendium of queer words for the modern fag with a passion for the Middle Ages added hebdomadally on the Sabbath day)

44.) Troat
-noun singular, verb

a.) (noun) The cry of a buck in rutting time.

b.) (verb) To emit a cry intended to attract other animals; used especially of animals at rutting time.*

[Origin: Unknown. Perhaps it is either onomatopoetic, or derived from the Old English þrote and Middle English throte; akin to Old High German drozza or “throat.”]

*Other elegant words describing the eerie mating calls of members of the cervidae family (such as wapiti and deer) include belling and bugling. If these graceful creatures bell, bugle, and troat, I wonder what the mating call of the unicorn might be called?

Balderdash for the Medieval Gay #43

(a compendium of queer words for the modern fag with a passion for the Middle Ages added hebdomadally on the Sabbath day)

43.) Engastration
-noun singular

a.) The act of stuffing one fowl inside another.

b.) The art of stuffing one animal inside another.*

[Origin: From the Greek gaster meaning "belly" or "stomach."]

*Engastration was practiced in ancient Rome and in the later Middle Ages. Evidence of this is found in an anonymous Andalusian cookbook from the 13th century which includes a recipe for ram stuffed with small birds. Earlier, the Roman satirist Petronius wrote a lively account of a feast at which live sparrows flew out of a roasted boar much to the surprise of all the present guests. More astonishing perhaps than the much later four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie? Beast and fowl aside, members of the tribe will relate to the possible enjoyment for both parties involved of the act of stuffing things inside one another.