Subject: Merry andrew [OT] RIDICULOUS crossposting and how to STOP it

On 28 January 2004 David Richerby wrote in
Message-id:

PJDBAD wrote:
Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Note: This term is said to have originated from one Andrew
Borde, an English physician of the 16th century, who
gained patients by facetious speeches to the multitude

The OED is somewhat dismissive of that idea: ``Hearne's statement, in the
preface to his edition of Benedictus Abbas (1735) that Merry Andrew was
originally applied to Dr. Andrew Borde (died 1549) has neither evidence
nor intrinsic probability, though Borde had a reputation for buffoonery,
as is shown by the traditional attribution to him of various collections
of jests.''

I suspect their reasoning is that you'd expect it to turn up in the
written record well before 1673 if it referred to somebody who died a
century and a quarter previous to that.

David Richerby


Andrew Borde (1500-1549) was physician to Henry VIII. He had a reputation of
being very learned but eccentric. He also had the reputation of addressing
crowds of people at fairs and other functions in a captivating, i.e. ad
captandum, way. Those who imitated his wit and drollery, though they did not
possess his intelligence, were called Merry Andrews - a term now used to
signify a clown or a buffoon. The good doctor Latinized his name into Andreas
Perforatus.
Although the above is the usual explanation on the origin of the expression
Merry Andrew or merry-andrew, Andrew was a common name in old English plays for
a varlet or manservant.

George Mirijanian