At last our special issue, JECS 48.4, is out, all 200+ pages of it! We're very proud of it. Thanks are due to many colleagues, but especially Nuria Yáñez-Bouza for proof-correcting heroics, and the general editor, Emrys Jones, for brilliant support throughout. #18thC #langsky

Mystery female: 'Mme Busche' is mentioned 8 times 1781-86 in the Mary Hamilton Papers. Possibly connected with Court, she apparently leaves England in 1781. We have a provisional identification (see new Personography entry below). Can anyone help with (dis)confirmation or further info? #18thC

I read 'Swordy' (in diary revision). Mary Hamilton encounters him twice in the street in 1784. Could it be a nickname for the royal fencing-master, one of the Angelo family, perhaps? See HAM/2/7 p.9 (www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/AR-HAM-00002-00007/9), HAM/2/11 p.10. #18thC #langsky

Two imminent developments from the Mary Hamilton Papers team: a special issue in JECS, and a major refresh of the edition (transcriptions, mark-up, personography), both probably live online in November. Watch this space! #18thC #langsky

Nope. It's a very clear '5', and anyway, Hamilton's '8' is characteristically slanted, halfway towards the modern infinity symbol ∞. See attached image.

Can anyone clarify this diary entry by Mary Hamilton in a period of sweltering late May weather? Even if her barometer had a thermometer built in, 52°F (11°C) is cool, whereas Mrs Delany reports that day that ‘the Weather is so _hot_ that I can not send my usual messenger to you’. #18thC #langsky

Thank you, Natasha Simonova! Not sure they can count as bouts-rimés if the targets aren't rhyme words, which many are not: see pp.116-120 in this ms book (www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/EX-LANC...). And does Mary Hamilton call them 'conglomerations' (p.121), I wonder?

Is there a name for an 18C parlour game in which a participant is given 4 or 5 words and challenged to include them all in an impromptu pair of rhyming couplets? #18thC #langsky

Hamilton reports a horrific lightning strike close to some of the royal children, which (we learn elsewhere) killed a coachman and a footman. So that chestnut of absurd phrasebooks (tracked in Wikipedia) actually happened, if not on a coach journey:
'My postillion has been struck by lightning'!

Mary Hamilton and her networks: Gender, sociability, manuscript. Important (we would think so, wouldn't we?) special issue of JECS, now in copy-editing. Intro + 4 research papers by the team (see www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk/further-read...) + 5 outside contributions. #18thC #langsky

_Notable_ adj. once had meanings to do with household management. Mary Hamilton often applies it to her (needle)work, slightly antedating OED, while Lady Dartrey mentions 'a good notable woman', i.e. competent in household matters. News to me, but not (I bet) to some of you. #18thC #langsky

More for the OED: bas bleu, indigo (in humorous reference to Bluestocking views), dissertation 'debate', haut ton. Chaperon and dirty (as verbs), moonshine (adjective), a bundle of nerves, jargonic, lucet, parliamenteering, spa toilet, strongle, tarot.

#Linguistics #18thC #c18th

Among 100+ newer/older/unknown words for the OED in the Hamilton Papers are jerry 'hen-pecked husband', jerryism, Benedict 'newly married', hub. Derogatory frump, quiz 'eccentric person'. Playful astoundation, terrificability. Specialised casaquin, clavicello, quipu.

#Linguistics #18thC #c18th