Skip to main content

Bodacious




‘Bodily, totally, root and branch,’ a phrase pressed into one word, ‘bodyaciously’ is given as the etymology for this word: slang from South Carolina. 

Bodacious, in use from 1837 or earlier, may also be a blend of bold and audacious: a word composited from two synonyms.

It was also the name of a bull famous for head butting rodeo contestants.

Comedic chaos.

Language should be this: like us: it requires play to fully live. 







Comments

Jo said…
Love it. Especially the bit about the bull. Funny thing to call him. I've heard the word, probably when in North Carolina. I love word origins.
3 April 2015 at 00:09
Jo said…
How's this for coincidence I went from your blog to Nancy Mock's Hungry Enough to Eat Six and what does she do, wishes her dad a bodacious birthday. http://hungryenoughtoeatsix.com/2015/04/b-is-for-black-white-sandwiches-from-arrow-book-of-easy-cooking
3 April 2015 at 00:17
The Cranky said…
I'd read somewhere, years ago, that it was based on the historical figure of Boudicca. I prefer your playful interpretation.
3 April 2015 at 01:19
Stephen Tremp said…
There was a guy back in the day who used that word every sixty seconds. We'd laugh as he was a funny guy and that's really all he added to a conversation.
3 April 2015 at 02:16
Cygnus said…
Why does this bring to mind the gnarly, radical Jeff Spicoli? :-)
3 April 2015 at 04:45
Geo. said…
I first read the word in the mid-1950s in the Sunday newspaper comics --which is where I learned reading-- in Al Capp's strip "Li'l Abner". Bodacious meant something powerful and pleasant and I have not found it necessary to further define it. I sure appreciate this expanded etymology in your post, though. We are bodacious, Lisa!
3 April 2015 at 04:54
Unknown said…
That's one Bodacious Bull! Just a suggestion, but the comment button on your blog is really hard to see. You may want to change the color so you get more comments! :-)
3 April 2015 at 12:26
Lisa Southard said…
Hope he did have just that - no bull! ;-)
3 April 2015 at 20:30
Lisa Southard said…
Boudicca is a more impressive historical source though- I want this to be true!
3 April 2015 at 20:33
Lisa Southard said…
This word is often overused- but mostly with good humour :-)
3 April 2015 at 20:37
Lisa Southard said…
Righteous word! :-)
3 April 2015 at 20:43
Lisa Southard said…
To the bone, I say! :-)
3 April 2015 at 20:44
Lisa Southard said…
Thank you Lauren- valid suggestion! Blog is due some sprucing so that can go on the To Do list :-)
3 April 2015 at 20:47
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Contact Pants Conundrum

There is weather today, I do note it: take a few moments to reckon the size of a cloud (big) and the frequency of rain (sporadic.) Centre of my interest though is a stack of magazines. Not the fashion kind. This is martial arts research. I'm not even sure what it is I'm looking for, but intuition calls loud. A range of old adverts skew some amusement. Contact pants, for example. Pants are not trousers where I come from. They are underwear. Professional contact pants: improved smirk value. But why would a person be likely to purchase a grappling hook and a lock pick set? For specialists and hobbyists only, the blurb assures. Guidance on the pheromone spray that attracts women against their better judgement? I doubt it works any more proficiently than the mysterious potion that defines your muscles while you sleep. But, then: I wonder is some sprayed on this paper? What was my intuition thinking, making this ghastly shout… Tea break time. There's a lot of words...
2 comments
Read more

Back From The Future Blog Party

Another joint blog adventure- if you want to see who else said what the list of participants is here . The premise is this: 'You're up before dawn on a Saturday when the doorbell rings. You haven't brewed your coffee so you wonder if you imagined the sound. Plonking the half-filled carafe in the sink, you go to the front door and cautiously swing it open. No one there. As you cast your eyes to the ground, you see a parcel addressed to you ... from you. You scoop it up and haul it inside, sensing something legitimate despite the extreme oddness of the situation. Carefully, you pry it open. Inside is a shoebox -- sent from ten years in the future -- and it's filled with items you have sent yourself. What's in it?' Here's how I imagined it: Before dawn? Shadows outside, first forming. Sleep has gone, I don't know where. Coffee I can find. All the way from Machu Pichu, this fair-traded pack. Scissors are in the drawer, which ...
26 comments
Read more

A Happy Kind Of Idiot

I am watching hazel leaves shimmy in a breeze, they are keeping time with the buzz of nettle stings that run from my fingertips to my elbows. It feels like I'm wearing gloves made of needles; why didn't I just wear gloves to clear the nettles from the raspberry hedge? But I like to know the plants, how they grow, how they smell, how they stain and sting, what bugs shelter in their leaves, what grubs and gastropods nestle at the roots. How the roots sneak under weedblocks, moon-pale, and over open ground where they are purplish, bullish.  I like the work to affect, I like interactive life.  It has a little pain and a lot of interest.  Not all the nettles are gone, of course, some must be left to house caterpillars, and they are a healthy vegetable for people too. Today’s crop is for compost though, to feed the soil, the miracle stuff from which this abundance grows. How could I not wish to be close to that?  At home I have a shower, scrub my sore hands- and still I sm...
Post a Comment
Read more