I have to inflict this on the rest of y'all.

[truepenny]

I apologize in advance.

So I'm cruising the OED Online, trying to find out when girlfriend in the sense of "romantic involvement" came into use (long story short: page proofs), and they offer this example of the use of girl-friend from the report of a wedding in 1896:

The "Wedding March" was whistled by twelve girl-friends of the bride.

Now I have been to some appalling weddings in my time, but never anything to match that.

The mind positively boggles.

Also, the "sweet girl-graduates" crack that annoys Harriet in Gaudy Night is a quote from Tennyson: "Sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair." Which figures.

And, hey, matociquala, you'll like this one. Examples for the compound girl-boy include this quote from Drayton's Heroical Epistles (1598):

And in my place vpon this regal throne,
To set that girle-boy wanton Gaueston

There's an example of girle-boyes from 1589, too.

Comments

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

Now I have been to some appalling weddings in my time, but never anything to match that.

I'll happily put money on having been to more appalling weddings than you, and absolutely anyone else I know (I was a bell-ringer, it was a duty rather than a privilege, and you could always tell the brides who hated their bridesmaids) but no, nothing like this.

It sounds like a wedding of a progressive gel, doesn't it. And I bet they didn't whistle in tune.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

The "Wedding March" was whistled by twelve girl-friends of the bride.

I thought nothing could be worse than "Dance of the Allies."

I thought wrong.

[why, yes, I am reading LJ a lot today. must creep back to work now...]

maybe it isn't that awful

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

Suppose, for example, that the organist had died just before the wedding and they couldn't get anyone to play the wedding march. So several of her friends volunteered to whistle the wedding march so she wouldn't have to enter in silence.

It could happen.

Although I must say that in trying to imagine the scene my mind keeps replacing the wedding march with the whistled tune from Bridge On the River Kwai. That or the mix of "wedding march" "green bottles" and "funeral dirge" from the original lemmings video game.

(nine green bottles hanging on the wall. nine green bottles hanging on the wall. if one of those bottles should accidently fall, there'll be eight green bottles hanging on the wall. Here comes the bride, here comes the bride. La la la la here comes the bride. Do not laugh when the hearse goes by, for you may be the next to die...)

girle-boyes? Is that like girly-man from snl circa late 1980's ("we're gonna pump *clap* you up!")

Re: maybe it isn't that awful

[papersky.livejournal.com]

You know, if I'd only thought of it I could have got the entire assemblage of my friends to whistle "Bridge on the River Kwai" (not Kawai!) aka "Hitler has only got one ball" when Rysmiel and I came in to the room to get married. Damn, they would have as well. One of those ideas that come too late. (We really had Bach's Brandenburg 2, on CD.)

BTW, I don't know you, tamnonlinearbut I bet you're a writer -- the way you took that lone and grotesque fact and made it into an ongoing story about the organist dying and the girls voulunteering gave you away.

nah, not a writer

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

just a storyteller, which is like a writer but less structured and involves far less subtle plagarism. I haven't the creative ability truly write (am old enough to admit my faults and accept my shortcomings. For example, I also have no sense of direction whatsoever and am generally lacking in the ability to detect subtle nuances in social interaction. Therefore I don't get asked out on dates because I never pick up on the fact that I'm being hit on, but this is something of a relief as I wouldn't be able to find my way home from someone else's place anyway). I just tend to pick up on weird angles and want to run with them...

(this mixed metaphor violates not only several grammatical rules but several saftey guidelines as well. Kids, play it safe and never run with weird angles. You could poke your eye out.)

Oh yeah, and it also means I tend to hijack other people's conversations with weird tangents that often begin with the phrase "Oh I know a story about that..."

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

One of those ideas that come too late.

What a mercy for those of us who attended! I know for a fact that PK can't carry a tune to save his life.

(And there's nothing wrong with Bach!)

Re: maybe it isn't that awful

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Didn't ever watch SNL, so can't say for sure. But "girl-boys" as these guys were using it has some pretty specific connotations of homosexuality. Gaveston was the favorite/lover of Edward II, and the other quote references Ganymede, who was always code for an eromenos in the Renaissance.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

And links, in a sideways kind of way, with the Thai 'ladyboys' of today.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

About whom I know absolutely nothing, but just on the basis of the word, yes, it sounds like the same sort of category.

On the subject of girl-boys...

[blue-adagio.livejournal.com]

I happened to catch a beautiful production of Marlowe's Edward II in London two weeks ago, on which I comment in my LJ here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/blue_adagio/3256.html). To my delight, it did include one exceptionally pretty girle-boy, as you can see from a picture of Edward and Gaveston of the selfsame production here (http://www.curtainup.com/edward2lond.html).

Re: On the subject of girl-boys...

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

heres_luck saw the Richard III (which she talks about here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/heres_luck/54353.html)).

I think Edward II is Marlowe's best play, and I'm so glad to hear about a really good production. And you're right, their Gaveston is pretty.

The master-mistress of my passion--

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Funny, just read that one today.

Okay, you cracked me up. *g* I admit it.

I was just wondering the other day if, if there is some sort of consciousness after death, what the shade of Piers Gaveston thinks of the recent film production of Edward II.

Although it might be more educational to get Marlowe's take on it....

And I agree. It's one hell of a play. The one that really makes me wonder what the mature work would have been like.

[pdcawley.livejournal.com]

If they were all talented siffleuses it would probably have sounded rather fab. I happen to be married to such a talented siffleuse and to hear her whistling Irish jigs and reels at session pace is a delight. (But it wasn't why I married her)