Wordie: Bum-boat: Comments

Comment by chained_bear, 8 months ago

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 01:49:57 +0000

Usage: "...Jack was determined not to lose a minute of it but to run down-Channel with a press of sail until he could round Ushant with plenty of sea-room. He would not even stop long enough to take in fresh supplies from the bum-boats that came round the ship, observing in his decided manner 'that they were not here to blow out their kites with lobscouse, nor to choke their luffs with figgy-dowdy, but to convey the Catalan troops to Santandero without a moment's loss of time...'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate, 287

Comment by reesetee, 10 months ago

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:57:28 +0000

Good to know--thanks!

Comment by bilby, 10 months ago

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:45:28 +0000

Also seems to refer to boats that sell provisions to houses built alongside canals and rivers, or actual floating villages. I've heard this term in both Singapore and Brunei in the last 10 years.

Comment by reesetee, 10 months ago

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:36:22 +0000

Your head could be chock-a-block with far worse things, sionnach. Nothing like a good G&S lyric to brace you on a bad day. :-)

Bilby, bum-boats are still common in Asia? I'm presuming the term was probably coined in the mid-1800s, then.

Comment by sionnach, 10 months ago

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:11:23 +0000

As a teenager, I had to help my mother learn the Buttercup part (and all corresponding G & S contralto parts - Ruth, Katisha etc.), including some of the really nonsensical stuff in the "Things are seldom what they seem" number. As a result, my head is chock-a-block with bizarre Gilbertian phrases like:

Highlows pass as patent leathers;
Jackdaws strut in peacock's feathers.

Drops the wind and stops the mill;
Turbot is ambitious brill.

Thirsty lambs run foxy dangers.
Paw of cat the chestnut snatches.

Meanwhile, I can barely remember my new cell number.

Comment by bilby, 10 months ago

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:19:17 +0000

Still fairly common in Asia. Better than pirates.

Comment by reesetee, 10 months ago

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:09:17 +0000

Thanks, sionnach--I'd forgotten that! And now I have a lovely earworm. :-)

Comment by sionnach, 10 months ago

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:55:59 +0000

Most famously, the character Buttercup in Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore" was a bumboat woman (the G & S score spells it without a hyphen).

For I'm called Little Buttercup -- dear Little Buttercup,
Though I could never tell why,
But still I'm called Buttercup -- poor little Buttercup,
Sweet Little Buttercup I!

I've snuff and tobaccy, and excellent jacky,
I've scissors, and watches, and knives;
I've ribbons and laces to set off the faces
Of pretty young sweethearts and wives.

I've treacle and toffee, I've tea and I've coffee,
Soft tommy and succulent chops;
I've chickens and conies, and pretty polonies,
And excellent peppermint drops.

Comment by reesetee, 10 months ago

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:19:53 +0000

In the mid-1800s, a boat that pulled up alongside a vessel in port to sell provisions and fruit.