That’s interesting

puzzles THAT’S INTERESTING...

Each month ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD, former researcher from ‘QI’ and author of The Meaning of Tingo, poses a vocabulary quiz from our local Wiltshire dialect.

CAN YOU GUESS THE CORRECT DEFINITION? 1. MUCKER

a) a pigsty b) a miserly person c) a madman 2. LILL

a) a motion between walking and trotting b) to pant as a dog c) the last and least willing sheep to be sheared

3. JUNK

a) a hunk of bread and cheese b) a small cavity in a rock c) a badly manufactured tiddlywink, flat on both sides

4. RUMPLE

a) the youngest of a litter of pigs b) to seduce c) a tree bare of leaves or twigs PUB NAMES

The names of British pubs are not all that they seem – certainly if you’re looking at the picture on the sign hanging outside them. The Cat and Fiddle didn’t derive from a music-loving publican who kept cats, but is a corruption of Katherine le Fidèle, which refers to the faithfulness of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife.

The Hope and Anchor comes from the Biblical text ‘We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope’; The Cross Keys is the symbol of St Peter, the gatekeeper of heaven; and The Royal Oak commemorates the tree that hid Charles II from Oliver Cromwell’s forces after his defeat at Worcester.

The most popular pub name in the UK is The Red Lion. The name is thought to originate from the time of James I and VI of Scotland who came to the English throne in 1603. James ordered that the heraldic red lion of Scotland be displayed on all buildings of importance - including pubs! The top 10 pub names in the UK are: Red Lion, Crown, Royal Oak, White Hart, Plough, Railway, Swan, White Horse, Kings Arms and Ship.