[lit-ideas] Griceiana
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 07:25:42 -0400
In a message dated 10/29/2014 5:03:09 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx writes:
In a message dated 10/29/2014 12:20:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
A post on "chimera" was sent today, ... p.s.'d on "Griceian" v. "Gricean".
As McEvoy notes,
i. Gricean
has one letter less than
ii. Griceian
However, 'Griceian' is used by, inter alii, Dennett -- and while the
spelling is more numerous, the pronunciation is different. The *pronunciation*
or 'Griceian' seems to retain the full surname of Grice while the
pronunciation, in English -- and Grice was English -- of 'Gricean' may be a
different
matter.
"Grice" is an English name, and the suffix, '-ian' is not -- as McEvoy
notes, using the example of Hercules -- it is Latin. There is perhaps no native
English equivalent to '-ian': -ish seems to carry the wrong implicature
("Shakespearish").
Spelling in English undergoes variation with time, and sometimes variants
co-occur. I would not be surprised if Caxton (who invented printing in
England) would use 'Griceian', provided he had to refer, by way of an
adjective, to the stuff derived from 'Grice'. But then even 'Grice' underwent
spelling reform.
Two theories are currently operative. According to one, which I follow,
'Grice' is Anglo-Norman, that is, French, and cognate with 'grey'. According
to the other, it is not, but rather Celtic (and Scots at that), meaning
'pig' -- which the Scots delightfully refer to as "Irish pig" (*).
And so on.
Cheers,
Speranza
ps. *The grice was, indeed a type of swine found in the Highlands and
Islands of Scotland and in Ireland.
It became extinct, surviving longest in the Shetland Isles, where it
disappeared in the late nineteenth century.
It was also known as the Highland, Hebridean or Irish pig.
"Grice" is a Scots and northern English dialect word originally meaning
"young pig" (compare the Scandinavian gris, meaning "pig").
Accounts from the early 19th century suggest the grice was an aggressive
animal with small tusks, an arched back, and a coat of stiff dark bristles
over a fleece of wool.
Highland examples were described as "a small, thin-formed animal, with
bristles standing up from nose to tail...".
Like other livestock in these areas, the grice was small and hardy, able to
survive the harsh environmental conditions.
Highland grice foraged for berries on moorland.
Most Shetland crofts would have at least one grice kept on grazing lands,
but they would often roam across adjacent farmland, rooting up crops and
occasionally killing and eating newborn lambs.
According to geologist Samuel Hibbert, who wrote an account of the islands
in 1822, although the grice was "small and scrawny", its meat made
"excellent hams" when cured.
Islanders also made footballs from the grice's bladders, and even
windowpanes from their intestines, by stretching the membrane over a wooden
frame
until it was sufficiently thin to allow light to pass through.
The animal's bristles were used as thread for sewing leather and for making
ropes.
However, useful as the animals no doubt were, neighbours were constantly
grumbling about the behaviour of their neighbour's grice, and the courts were
empowered to confiscate particularly troublesome pigs, and to impose
"hefty fines" on their owners.
In the nineteenth century, landowners discouraged the keeping of these
swine.
One agricultural writer commented:
"It is voracious in the extreme, and excessively difficult to confine in
pasture or to fatten: it is also destructive and mischievous, and therefore
ought gradually to be extirpated."
This, combined with the increasing import of other breeds from the Scottish
mainland, resulted in a dwindling grice population, and by the 1930s the
breed was extinct.
The legacy of grice remains, however.
The wild bulb squill is known locally as "grice's onions" because it was a
favourite food of the swine.
In 2006 curators at the Shetland Museum and Archives commissioned a
taxidermist to re-create a grice from the stuffed body of an immature wild
boar.
As no one alive had seen a grice, the accuracy of the model relied on
descriptions in "published sources ... investigated artefact and archaeological
findings".
The model grice went on public display in spring 2007.
See also: Shetland animal breeds, Shetland pony, List of domesticated
Scottish breeds, Ossabaw Island Hog
References:
Hall, Stephen J. G.; Clutton-Brock, Juliet (1989), Two Hundred Years of
British Farm Livestock, British Museum (Natural History), p. 203, ISBN
0-565-01077-8
Culley, George, (1807), Observations on Livestock, pub Wilkie, Robinson et
al, p 176
Macdonald, J (1810), General view of the agriculture of the Hebrides, or
Western Isles of Scotland, pub Richard Phillips et al, Edinburgh, p 486
Oxford English Dictionary 1933: Headword "Grice"
Pain, Stephanie (23/30 December 2006), And This Little Pig Went Extinct,
New Scientist: 70–71 Check date values in: |date= (help)
Foula—The Edge of the World, Foula Heritage, retrieved 25 May 2010
"Extinct island pig spotted again". BBC News. 17 November 2006. Retrieved
4 May 2010.
"New museum opens doors to public". BBC News. 2 June 2007. Retrieved 4 May
2010.
New Shetland Museum and Archives report of taxidermic reconstruction of
grice
Picture of reconstructed grice
Extinct island pig spotted again, BBC News, 17 November 2006.
New Museum Opens Doors to Public, BBC News, 2 June 2007.
Heritage and Culture article
Categories: Pig breeds, Pig breeds originating in Scotland, Extinct
British pig breeds, Extinct mammals of Europe, Mammal extinctions since 1500,
Fauna of Shetland, Shetland animal breeds.
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