Activities per year
Abstract
The records of the British East India Company are an uncharted source for historical linguistics and lexicography. In particular, letters between Company employees stationed in the East Indies contain a large amount of colloquial language use. Among the more or less standardized reporting on business matters, there are discussions of all aspects of private life, such as food, drink and, occasionally, sex. This paper investigates a hapax legomenon in the correspondence of early East India Company merchants in Japan (1613–1623): the use of lapidable to mean ‘mature for sexual intercourse.’ The word is traced in Early and Late Modern English dictionaries and primary texts, and the paper ends with a discussion of East India Company merchants and creative language use.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Words in Dictionaries and History : Essays in honour of R.W. McConchie |
| Editors | Olga Timofeeva, Tanja Säily |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Publisher | John Benjamins |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Pages | 169-192 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-90-272-2338-8 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-90-272-8690-1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
| MoE publication type | A3 Book chapter |
Publication series
| Name | Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice |
|---|---|
| Publisher | John Benjamins |
| Volume | 14 |
| ISSN (Print) | 1388-8455 |
Fields of Science
- 612 Languages and Literature
- branded words
- history of language
- east india company
- dictionaries
- merchant language
- satirical literature
- sexual vocabulary
- historical lexicography
- Early Modern English
Activities
- 1 Editor of research anthology/collection/conference proceedings
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John Benjamins (Publisher)
Säily, T. (Editor)
2009 → 2011Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editor of research anthology/collection/conference proceedings