Faynights: You've been sleighed

Sunday, December 03, 2006

You've been sleighed

It seems like a date that ought to be marked somehow - last night, the Second of December 2006, in an act of desperation I tuned the kitchen radio to Virgin. And for the first time this year I heard 'Merry Xmas Everybody' by Slade. It's almost like an annual rite of passage isn't it?

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Perhaps the most important word in the schoolchild's vocabulary is his truce term. Certainly to the adult observer it is his most interesting word, for when a child seeks respite he uses a term to which there is now no exact equivalent in adult speech. If, when engaged in some boisterous activity with his fellows, a child is exhausted or out of breath, or cuts himself, or has a shoelace undone, or fears his clothes are getting torn, or wants to know if it is time to go home, he makes a sign with his hands, and calls out a word which brings him immediate but temporary relief from the strife .... It will be appreciated that uttering a truce term does not of itself imply that a child has given in or surrendered, although it may sometimes be used preparatory to surrendering. A London urchin when fighting may cry 'faynights', whereupon his opponent, on ceasing to belabour him, may inquire 'Wanna give in?' and the boy will perhaps do so ('Okay, you win, leave me alone'). But more often, if a boy says 'faynights' or 'faynights -- hang on a sec' in the middle of a struggle, he does so because he wants to take off his jacket or his glasses before continuing the combat. And before we ourselves appreciated that children were sensitive to the difference between making a truce and surrendering, we were puzzled by the number of boys who declared stoutly (and correctly) that they had no term for giving in.

-- Peter and Iona Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (Oxford University Press, 1959)

Faynights

Sunday, December 03, 2006

You've been sleighed

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