[Spellyans] Box
Craig Weatherhill
craig at agantavas.org
Sat Oct 9 21:34:56 BST 2010
A Kist o' Whistles - love it! The finest and most mellow organ pipes
were of Cornish tin.
Craig
On 9 Hed 2010, at 19:40, ewan wilson wrote:
> In Scotland 'a kist' ( pronounced as the past tense of the verb
> kiss: kissed)
> designates a wooden chest for holding linen, etc. They're a bit old
> fashioned these days but there's one in our family dating back to
> the end of the 18th century which went all the way across to North
> America and back!
> A Kist O' Whistles was a derogatory term for a church organ in
> Presbyterian Scotland where the metrical psalms were and still are
> in the more conservative denominations such as my own still sung
> without instrumental accompaniment.
>
> Ewan.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Everson" <everson at evertype.com
> >
> To: "Standard Cornish discussion list" <spellyans at kernowek.net>
> Sent: Saturday, October 09, 2010 3:30 PM
> Subject: Re: [Spellyans] Box
>
>
> On 9 Oct 2010, at 21:14, nicholas williams wrote:
>
>> Where did the antiquarians get the word from?
>> If they saw it written <kist> they would have pronounced it short.
>> For it to have a long vowel it would have had to be written <keest>.
>
> Kist is a word used in the North and in Scotland. OED:
>
> [Northern form of CHEST n.1; either directly from Scandinavian, or
> owing its form to Norse influence; cf. ON.kista, Sw. kista, Da.
> kiste; also Du. kist, Ger. kiste. With the various senses, cf. CHEST
> 1, 3, 4, 5.]
>
> 1.a. A chest, box, coffer. (In Sc. the specific term for a servant's
> trunk.)
> c1300 Havelok 2018 Al þat he milhen [= hy mihten] fynde Of hise, in
> arke or in kiste.
>
> 13.. E.E. Allit. P. C. 159 Ouerborde bale to kest,..Her kysttes &
> her coferes.
>
> c1420 Sir Amadace (Camden) xliv, Kistes and cofurs bothe ther
> stode,..fulle of gold precius and gode.
>
> 1535 STEWART Cron. Scot. II. 21 All tha buikis tha kist hes brocht
> till.
>
> b. Applied to the ‘ark’ of bulrushes in which Moses was placed; and
> to Noah's ark. Obs.
>
> a1300 Cursor M. 5614-17 (Cott.) A rescen [MS. An esscen] kyst [Gött.
> a kist of rises] sco did be wroght,..In þis kist þe barn sco did.
>
> 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 449 ‘Now Noe’, quoth oure lorde, ‘..Hatz þou
> closed þy kyst with clay alle aboute?’
>
>
>
> Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/
>
>
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--
Craig Weatherhill
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