Sunday, December the 14th, 2003
back to: title, date or indexes
Vigilant readers of the Hooting Yard Search Engine Lure will note within it the splendid word “bewolfenbuddlement”. Like “solipsism”, this is a coinage by Horace Walpole, but sadly one which never caught on. When the future George III was a teenager, his grandfather tried to marry him off to a European princess, much to the dismay of George's mother. The name of the princess was Sophia Caroline Maria, daughter of the Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Under his mother's influence, George became fretful and aghast at the proposal, and—as Walpole wrote—he “declares violently against being bewolfenbuttled”. To resurrect the word successfully, perhaps it is necessary to widen it from the sense of being forced into an arranged marriage to being forced into anything one doesn't want to do. Start using it today!