Lovely thread...I did consider for a moment doing a "big fat Greek wedding" and starting to claim Greek origins for the word; but I took a deep breath and the devilishness left me. Or it might have been the Windex my wife sprayed me with.

Seriously though, this is a very informative thread, and it takes me back 31 years to when I first joined the folk scene. Every day I would hear a new (to me) song, with some word I didn't understand (I'd only started learning English the year before). And so, day by day I would learn new words and expressions, colloquialisms, bits of history ("what was the Jarrow march?", "who was John Ball?", "what happened on St George's Hill?"). Slowly my English improved, and at the same time I was learning about the culture and history. The level of my English, and the fact that in later life I even ventured into songwriting, is ENTIRELY due to my involvement with folk music, and the help of the good people serving it, like yourselves.

THANKS