Next time you are kept waiting for your food at a restaurant you perhaps should not be surprised, after all the person serving you is called a waiter!
The etymology of the word wait has various origins but the one I like is as follows. Most words with a “W “are of Germanic origin for example where what when etc. One source claims that the origin of wait lies in the word wake. The explanation is that it came to us through old French where the word meant to be watchful or be on guard. This came originally from old German taken from the expression to lie in wait which would have been interpreted from the expression to lie in wake, i.e., don’t go to sleep!
Perhaps this is why your meal has taken so long- the waiter has fallen asleep!
Covid 19 has removed to a large extent the habit of the handshake, but will it now return? Have you ever thought or wondered why we shake hands in the first place? The following perhaps provides the history behind this practice…
The handshake has existed in some form or another for thousands of years, but its origins are somewhat murky. One popular theory is that the gesture began as a way of conveying peaceful intentions. By extending their empty right hands, strangers could show that they were not holding weapons and bore no ill will toward one another. Some even suggest that the up-and-down motion of the handshake was supposed to dislodge any knives or daggers that might be hidden up a sleeve. Yet another explanation is that the handshake was a symbol of good faith when making an oath or promise. When they clasped hands, people showed that their word was a sacred bond.
“An agreement can be expressed quickly and clearly in words,” the historian Walter Burkert once explained, “but is only made effective by a ritual gesture: open, weapon less hands stretched out toward one another, grasping each other in a mutual handshake.”
One of the earliest depictions of a handshake is found in a ninth century B.C. relief, which shows the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III pressing the flesh with a Babylonian ruler to seal an alliance. The epic poet Homer described handshakes several times in his “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” most often in relation to pledges and displays of trust. The gesture was also a recurring motif in the fourth and fifth century B.C. Greek funerary art. Gravestones would often depict the deceased person shaking hands with a member of their family, signifying either a final farewell or the eternal bond between the living and the dead. In ancient Rome, meanwhile, the handshake was often used as a symbol of friendship and loyalty. Pairs of clasped hands even appeared on Roman coins.
Would anyone like to suggest where the French habit of “La bise” i.e., the kissing of friends (other than those romantically involved) two, three or in some parts of France 4 times on either side of the face?
It is claimed that all Nursery Rhymes were in fact the way in which historic events were broadcast through the population and helped to protect the teller from being arrested.
The Story of “The three blind mice” is said to originated from…
The three blind mice in this story are supposedly the Oxford Martyrs, three Anglican bishops who refused to renounce their Protestant beliefs, and were executed by Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, for “blindly” following Protestant learnings rather than Catholic ones. The expression farmers wife is of course Mary who was married to Phillip of Spain who owned large tracts of fertile land broken down into Estates that produced large amounts of food for the Royal Court of Spain.
Paignton Probus Club 