The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #144057 Message #3328938
Posted By: MGM·Lion
26-Mar-12 - 12:14 AM
Thread Name: Why 'Matilda'?
Subject: Why 'Matilda'?
A search naturally produces lots of threads on Waltzing Matilda. But none seems AFAICS to have dealt with the question of WHY that particular female name, Matilda, for a rover's ("swagman's") bag or kit or rolled up bundle of belongings (his "swag")? Suggestions have been made regarding relationship to the term 'housewife' for a soldier's roll of sewing-kit; and to the fact that in some idioms 'Matilda' was used as a generic name for a camp-follower ; but these explanations merely beg the question, or move it back one stage. No effort have I found to explain precisely WHY that particular name, rather than Bertha or Judith or Valerie or Emma [these being FWIW the names of my mother, my sister and my two wives ~ substitute any woman's name, according to own associations or taste!].
(The name Bertha reminds me of another generic name, but one for which we do have an explanation ~~ the German WW1 gun colloquially known as the Big Bertha, which was named for the wife of the weapon-maker Friedrich Krupp; but we do not seem to have any such associative explanation for Matilda.)
So, again: ~~ Why "Matilda" particularly?
~Michael~