Weather
Worcester News, Worcester Sport, Worcester Leisure - From The Worcester News
Get involved! Send your photos, video, news & views by texting WN NEWS to 80360 or e-mail us
Everything from arsenic to zoobditty in new dictionary
From the Kidderminster Shuttle, first published Tuesday 19th Dec 2006.
A UNIQUE new dictionary that explains how everything from arsenic to zoobditty match was sold and used hundreds of years ago is being compiled by historians at the University of Wolverhampton.
The University's History and Governance Research Institute is busy putting the finishing touches to the Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities.
The Institute is producing the new 10,000 word dictionary for historians as no other bible' exists which labels and explains the many different types of traded goods that have long since disappeared.
Historians have already identified 4,000 terms with another 6,000 being researched from the period 1550 through to 1820. They are also interested in hearing from people with specialist knowledge on terms including metals, textiles, agricultural crops, imported goods, glass, ceramics and drugs.
These include zoobditty match', a rich sauce or pickle based on fish, which came from India and was popular at fashionable tables in the late eighteenth century.
Other unusual words from centuries ago include stammet', a yarn that had been shrunk and smoothed by scouring and was used to make textiles like tammy', and kermes', the dried bodies of a Middle-Eastern insect that was used in dyeing some expensive goods.
The dictionary even clarifies the early use of Kidderminster', saying the term related first to a cloth rather than to a carpet, for which the region is well known. Kidderminsters were used mainly for curtains and upholstery, whereas the similar Norwich "stuffs" were mainly used in dresses.
The University's Dr Nancy Cox, Academic Editor of the Dictionary Project and Consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary on historic mercantile language, said: "An understanding of the vocabulary of trade is an essential tool for historians of the early modern period, and yet it is one that is ill served by existing dictionaries and historical research alike.
"Items both exotic and mundane such as carnation tape' and Daffy's Elixir, produced as a result of technological advances by specialist producers, had an impact on contemporary life throughout the country.
"The Dictionary aims to be more than a compilation of existing references, offering an informed understanding of the complex relationships between innovation, the market place and the consumer."
Dictionary team research fellow Karin Dannehl added: "This dictionary provides a fascinating insight into nearly 300 years of our material culture.
"Indeed, it is the very stuff that TV historians Simon Schama and Amanda Vickery cannot show because the work has not so far been done!"
The Dictionary will be published and available online, along with a more detailed archive aimed at scholars.
University staff working alongside Nancy and Karin include Research Assistant Dr Michael Cahill, Programmer Dr Mary Garvey, and Application Developer Michael Pidd. Partners in the project include British History Online at the Institute of Historical Research in London.
The project has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust and the Pilgrim Trust.
For more information visit: www.wlv.ac.uk/tradedictionary
