Crunchy ‘Nanas

A few weeks ago Moose woke up pondering the definition of aplomb. Today, as is usual for people who think alike, I awoke considering the different uses of the word “broody”. It’s funny how you can hear something for so long and not wonder. And then finally one day wonder about what you’ve heard and then wonder why you hadn’t wondered before. In my world, the term broody immediately conjures up the image of Mr. Darcy sulking in the corner of a room, brow furrowed, unsociably dour. And yet here, broody seems to be used mostly to describe a woman ready, in the emotional sense if not also in the physiological sense, to have a child. I know, they do a lot of things ‘differently’ here. But, in this case, the use actually makes the most sense to me. Ready to breed. Broody. It works.

To me, new life is a joyous and happy occasion. Where did this other stormy connotation come from? Until today, I never questioned it. It always made sense to me in a go-with-the-flow kind of way. Broody. Moody. Similar sound, similar meaning. (Oh, I can be so easily pleased sometimes.) But, really I know, or should know, that rhyme does not always make reason. Red means something completely different to head. Glad and sad, opposites.

Thanks to the Online Etymology Dictionary, everything has fallen into place in my mind. Or, at least everything concerning the uses of broody. The roots of “brood” mean “that which is hatched by heat”. Okay, that makes sense so far, nothing new to me there. But, then it goes on to say “the verbal figurative meaning (”to incubate in the mind”) is first recorded 1571, from notion of “nursing” one’s anger, resentment, etc.” A-ha! This usage makes sense to me too.

Now, if only I could get my head round why the British use the French word aubergine for eggplant, but the Americans use an English term. Where the Americans got the English term when the British use the French term is beyond me. I guess that’s my next project: Why we can’t just all call a cookie a cookie, a trunk a trunk. Sorry, but you eat biscuits with gravy and a boot is a shoe, thank you very much.

This entry was posted on Friday, 2nd March 2007 at  12:13 and is filed under Brit-ification. You can follow responses to this entry using the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.