Mackinaw

According to my Concise Dictionary of Canadianisms this word originates from an Ojibwa word mackinac or mickinac, meaning turtle. Explorer and fur trade pioneer Alexander Henry, the Elder (not to be confused with his nephew, the Younger) wrote in Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories Between the Years 1760 and 1776, “The land in the centre of this island (Mackinac Island) is high and its form  somewhat resembles that of a turtle’s back. ... The common interpretation of the word Michilimackinac is the Great Turtle.” Note that Michilimackinac was a fort between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, and the name is still used for the area.

The word mackinaw also refers to a felted woolen cloth from which blankets and other articles of clothing were made. ``The original mackinaw coats were made from Hudson Bay ``Point`` blankets for the British soldiers who, during the war of 1812, fought in the neighbourhood of Mackinaw.``   Bags for sleeping in were made of these blankets (probably a lot less comfortable than our modern sleeping bags).  A mackinaw coat was short, of rough material ``much like a grey horse blanket. It is worn by most lumberjacks, explorers, miners and woodsmen in the regions north of the great Canadian lakes.`` 

A mackinaw boat, also called a York boat was a heavy flat bottomed freight boat used during the fur trade.

A mackinaw fish was another name for a lake trout.

In general mackinaw isn’t a word one hears nowadays, particularly where I live, but I like it because it has a rich history.

Lollygagging

I am having that kind of morning, not doing anything in particular, hanging about, doing this and that because it’s raining.

To lollygag or lallygag means to dawdle, loiter, fool around. It can also mean to neck or smooch in public (which I didn’t know), as well as to chatter incessantly.

My dictionary (Webster) says the origin is unknown, but according to an on line source, the Oxford English Dictionary says the word comes from ‘loll’ to waste time, and ‘gag’ to deceive or fool. On yahoo’s answer.com it gives an example of usage from  an Iowa paper in 1868, “The lascivious lolly-gagging lumps of licentiousness who disgrace the common decencies of life...”

In Britain the term ‘lolly’ refers to a lollipop or ice cream popsicle, so lollygagging likely would have negative connotations there.

Lolly is also a slang term for money, and that’s where things get really interesting. Most of us have heard of terms such as ‘buck’ and ‘bread’ as slang for money, but did you know about frogskins (maybe because some money is green?), duckets, scrilla, mopuses, and wonga? Let’s lollygag about money some more. In Australia a ten dollar bill is apparently called a blue tongue because it is predominantly green. In the United Kingdom, ready money is called rhino. Whenever I read British books that mention their money, I have to get out the dictionary and sometimes I’ve made a chart (for some of Dorothy Sayers’ mystery novels). A quid is another word for a pound, a bob is a shilling, and six-pence a tanner. Most confusing!

Back to lollygagging. I wonder if there are people out there who invent words either on purpose or by accident? Certainly my grandson does. I just got off Skype with him and he was inventing goblin words for milk and the like. In one of my favourite books by Connie Willis (bellwether), she speculates about the origins of fads and suggests that there are people who are sort of fad originators and magnets, so that whatever they wear or do becomes picked up by others around them. In our increasingly connected world it’s not hard to spread a saying or a fad nearly instantly. As I’ve probably said before, we do indeed live in a global village.