Silly Suffolk

[Poppy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-52412655

[Chelsea14Ian]

I say nothing

[WherryNice]

"The cleaner is lovely and does a great job in the library. It was an honest mistake and just one of those things so we would never want her to feel bad about it,"

Buuut we thought we would splash it over social media and the news anyway........

[SwanR]

That is very funny ... I will be sharing it on. :)

[JennyMorgan]

Another lockdown moment!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-52427165

[JennyMorgan]

From Wikipedia:

'Most English counties have nicknames for people from that county, such as a Tyke from Yorkshire and a Yellowbelly from Lincolnshire; the traditional nickname for people from Suffolk is 'Suffolk Fair-Maids', or 'Silly Suffolk', referring respectively to the supposed beauty of its female inhabitants in the Middle Ages, and to the long history of Christianity in the county and its many fine churches (from Anglo-Saxon selige, originally meaning holy)' 

[Timbo]

 

11 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

from Anglo-Saxon selige, originally meaning holy

With my tongue ever so much in my cheek, but "selige' means 'departed' or 'dead' or 'spiritual' as in 'ghostly' it can also mean a 'hole' as in a hole in the ground or a tooth if you read the Anglo Saxon Chronicles, but not 'holy'. Such a word as 'Holy' in such a context would use the Latin root 'sancti' or 'sanctum'. Bearing in mind that contrary to the Wikipedia entry Christianity came late to East Anglia as a whole, even according to Bede (I tend to think of Bede as the Venal Bede, the guy had prejudices!). So if the Anglo Saxon "Selige" is taken as the origin of the nickname then the Anglo Saxons would be talking about Suffolk as a 'bit of a hole'.

Fear not though Peter, if we take the Middle English (post Norman English) 'seely' as the root of the nickname, which I think is most likely, then we have a 'blissful', 'lucky', 'blessed' or 'happy' place. Of course, those from Norfolk would point out the several changes in the meaning of the word after the Great Vowel Shift (I have an unfortunate habit of referring to this linguistic event as 'The Great Vowel Movement') between 1400 and 1700 going through 'feeble', 'unsophisticated', 'ignorant' and ending with 'foolish'. I'm sure they wouldn't hesitate in also pointing out that it's those outside the social or geographic group that coin the nickname and they would choose the meaning. But then that would be 'normal for Norfolk'!