The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #59476   Message #949764
Posted By: GUEST,Q
10-May-03 - 03:47 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: Whence came tickety-boo, kilter, & whack
Subject: RE: BS: Whence came tickety-boo, kilter, & whack
Twitterpated? No, but "I am all over in a twitteration!" The latter was in print in 1820, and means just what you would guess it to mean. Twittery means shaky.
Twitchety is early Victorian- meaning all over nervous. There are a zillion of these words.

You caught me up late too! Woke up and started thinking about a bunch of books that I (may) want to sell. Checking sales prices at Abebooks.

While checking on that huncho theory, I read about Perry's first visit. Interesting. He brought a load of presents for the Emperor. The shogun at Yedo (Edo) sent out a school teacher who presented himself as the representative of the Emperor, complete with faked papers. Perry left, not knowing. The presents went to a house of the shogun, where they were just left. Almost 20 years later, Prof. Griffis saw them, still there, rusting and rotting away, apparently never unpacked. Griffis published "The Mikado's Empire" in 1876, writing it during his four year stay in Japan. He taught the first Japanese students sent to the United States in 1868 (many of whom attained positions of importance), and then in 1870 was invited to organize a scientific school in Japan. He became at home in every level, as he says, from the palace to the beggar's hovel, and saw the end of the feudal period and the beginning of modern Japan. The knowledge he gained about Japan and its people was amazingly large, covering every aspect. The book is beautifully written.