Does Hardy just make these words up?
What is "furmity"?
Hardy's use of language is one aspect which critics enjoy writing about. Are there any words or phrase that just don't make sense to you in the first 75 pages for the text? Post them here.
This blog is for students in Mr. Getty's AP English class who are sharing their ideas about the works of Thomas Hardy. Students are to use this blog to keep an on-going record of their discussion about The Mayor of Casterbridge.
Furmity is not a "made up" word. Dictionary.com told me that furmity is a variant of furmenty. Furmenty is a british word defined as a dish of hulled wheat boiled in milk and seasoned with sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. I believe Hardy describes the furmity as this type of dish in the book as well.
ReplyDeleteI looked it up as well, and like Chelsey, I found it to to be a word of English origin. From the definition dictionary.com gave me and the use of it in the text, furmity seems similar to today's oat meal.
ReplyDeleteI looked it up as well, and I agree. It seems to resmeble todays oatmeal. I think that maybe Hardy wrote with the time periods "slang". Some words, when read today, are confusing. But what if those words were coherant in Victorian times. Just like maybe 100 years from now the word "dude" will mean nothing, and readers then will read 'dude' and think the author is crazy for writing like an idiot.
ReplyDeleteI also looked up the word Furmity on Dictionary.com and found that the term comes from a british word, furmenty. Furmenty is a dish of hulled wheat in milk and seasoned with sugar, cinnamon and raisons. Therefore, Thomas Hardy is not making up words, he is simply using words that most of us do not use anymore or know. Like Devon said, years from now words that we use everyday will probably not exist. On page 4 the word Furmity appeared, "and in front appeared the placard, 'Good Furmity Sold Hear.'" This caught my eye because shouldn't people be more concered about the fact that Hardy is using Homonyms rather than old language? I think Hardy means to write here, rather than hear.
ReplyDeleteUhhhhhhhh that last post was from Grace.. I forgot to sign into my name.
ReplyDeleteI, like everyone else, looked up the word furmity and found the same information. But unlike Grace, I think that Hardy means to hear rather than write. "Furmity" and "Furmenty" sound quite similar, especially if you insert an accent. For example, us Vermonters tend to lack the pronunciation of our "t's" within our everyday conversation. Seriously, say "Vermont" or "Milton", then spell it like you hear it. My guess is that you've spelled "Vermont" as "Vermon" and "Milton" and "Mil-in". Now, try saying "Fermenty" and spelling it how you hear it.. my guess is that some people will hear and spell it as "Fermity" as well.
ReplyDeleteThis colloquial text can also be found in the beginning of Tess when Jack Durbeyfield is stumbling around drunk talking to the parson. Words like "said" and "have" are written as "zaid" and "hev". Hardy intended his writing to be read aloud, to catalyze thoughts, to grip the reader and cause them to dig deeper in order to fully understand his writing. By observing the research that we've done to fully understand a single word among his many books, it seems that this goal has been acheived.
I, no different than the other bloggers, found that furmity is a spin off of frumenty and is of British dialect. Frumenty is a dish of hulled wheat boiled in milk and seasoned with sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. I also agree with Hilary. I believe Hardy wrote his novels intending for his writing to be read aloud, therefore causing furmity to appear as a "made up" word. Hilary provided examples from Tess of words which are misspelled to be read as they would be spoken and heard and these examples are all in dialogue, therefore proving they are meant to be read as they would be heard. There are many examples of these words in Mayor of Casterbridge as well, one being “d’ye” which would be interpreted as “do you.”
ReplyDeleteI had seen a word early in the book which began with ‘Ea’ and the ‘a’ was somewhat on top of the ‘E’. I unluckily do not recall the entire word and have not been able to find the word in the novel once again. This specific word threw me off and I have no clue as to what the meaning to it is. By chance know which word I’m talking about?
Did it look like Æ?
ReplyDeleteIf yesss, then wikipedia told me that... Æ (minuscule: æ) is a grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a ligature representing a Latin diphthong, it has been promoted to the full status of a letter in the alphabets of many languages, including, among others, Danish and Norwegian. As a letter of the Old English alphabet, it was called æsc ("ash tree") after the Anglo-Saxon futhorc rune ᚫ which it transliterated; its traditional name in English is still Ash (IPA: /ˈæʃ/).
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