[lit-ideas] Re: Flew: The Obituary
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2010 18:42:55 EDT
In a message dated 6/5/2010 3:28:39 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx writes:
The ditty was a favorite of my mother's. She would use it to distract my
brother and I when we got at each other.
"A flea and fly were caught in a flue
and didn't know what to do.
Let us flee, said the fly.
Let us fly, said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue"
----
Part of the problem is the tautology. Strictly, etymologically speaking a
flea IS a fly (or a fly a flea, if you prefer). Back before the conquest of
William, Anglo-Saxons would confuse the insects ('flygend'). A flea was
thought to 'fly' in "little jumps" -- hence the name of the insect. It was
considered that they did have wings (to fly). In later times*, 'flee' was
used to mean 'to escape' but what was part of the sense then is still part of
the sense now. You can find more about the flea and the fly in wikipedia.
While similar in names, they belong to different genus, as McEvoy remarks,
their feeding habits are also different.
J. L. Speranza
--- * in Germany, when they did not have a "William the Conqueror" they
still confuse, in plattsdeutsche, the flea with the fly (dialectically) and
Otto von Fritz argues that the iso-glossalia corresponds to this confusion.
for Pulex irritans ('the flea'):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_flea
----
for Diptera Cyclorrhapha ('the fly'):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly
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