Weird Words: Mooreeffoc ------------------------------ ------------------------------------- Relating to things suddenly seen in a new and different way.
Though this word is rare to the point of never being used in its ostensible sense, but only as a keyword to initiate discussion, it has been keeping illustrious company, since its few appearances in print have been in works by G K Chesterton, J R R Tolkien and Charles Dickens.
Dickens invented it, if that's the right word. He mentions it in his autobiography, when he describes his poverty-stricken youth:
In the door there was an oval glass plate, with COFFEE-ROOM painted on it, addressed towards the street. If I ever find myself in a very different kind of coffee-room now, but where there is such an inscription on glass, and read it backward on the wrong side MOOR-EEFFOC (as I often used to do then, in a dismal reverie,) a shock goes through my blood.
From Michael Quinion's World Wide Words weekly newsletter.
a Chestertonian fantasy (coffeeroom seen in reverse)
"Mooreeffoc is a fantastic word, but it could be seen written up in every town in this land. It is Coffee-room, viewed from the inside through a glass door, as it was seen by Dickens on a dark London day; and it was used by Chesterton to denote the queerness of things that have become trite, when they are seen suddenly from a new angle."
I have no doubt that Chesterton coined this word, and I appreciate the idea. But the explanation that this is what one would see from the other side of the glass door seems demonstrably untrue. Just write 'coffeeroom' on a piece of paper, turn it over and hold it up to the light. There is no angle from which you would see 'mooreeffoc'.
Or am I missing something? (I have the kind of personality that finds this kind of inaccuracy profoundly irritating, God help me)
Weird Words: Mooreeffoc
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-------------------------------------
Relating to things suddenly seen in a new and different way.
Though this word is rare to the point of never being used in its ostensible sense, but only as a keyword to initiate discussion, it has been keeping illustrious company, since its few appearances in
print have been in works by G K Chesterton, J R R Tolkien and Charles Dickens.
Dickens invented it, if that's the right word. He mentions it in his autobiography, when he describes his poverty-stricken youth:
In the door there was an oval glass plate, with COFFEE-ROOM painted on it, addressed towards the street. If I ever find myself in a very different kind of coffee-room now, but where there is such an inscription on glass, and read it backward on the wrong side MOOR-EEFFOC (as I often used to do then, in a dismal reverie,) a shock goes through my blood.
From Michael Quinion's World Wide Words weekly newsletter.
Here is the derivation:
a Chestertonian fantasy (coffeeroom seen in reverse)
"Mooreeffoc is a fantastic word, but it could be
seen written up in every town in this land. It is
Coffee-room, viewed from the inside through a
glass door, as it was seen by Dickens on a dark
London day; and it was used by Chesterton to
denote the queerness of things that have become
trite, when they are seen suddenly from a new angle."
I have no doubt that Chesterton coined this word, and I appreciate the idea. But the explanation that this is what one would see from the other side of the glass door seems demonstrably untrue. Just write 'coffeeroom' on a piece of paper, turn it over and hold it up to the light. There is no angle from which you would see 'mooreeffoc'.
Or am I missing something? (I have the kind of personality that finds this kind of inaccuracy profoundly irritating, God help me)
Excellent.
The queerness of things which, previously trite, are suddenly seen from a new angle. (from WordCraft)
Great word, great observation.