A woman sent me a note a few weeks ago. I sometimes get excited when a person of the opposite sex hands me a note. It reminds me of my days at primary school.
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But when I get a note from a woman these days it contains something very mundane, such as “what does this word mean?” The note asked me about drubbing. This woman came from a newspaper.
Drubbing in general terms represents a beating, or punishment, but its origins seem to be in doubt.
The first use, in print, of the word that I could find was in 1634, when Sir Thomas Herbert, using the spelling of the day, commented “he confest and was drubd right handsomely”.
The word seems to have come into English from Sir Thomas’s travels in the Orient. It was related to the bastinado, which was a form of torture which related to the caning of feet.
Sir Thomas Herbert (1606-1682), was an English traveller, historian and a gentleman of the bedchamber of King Charles I while Charles I was in the custody of parliament (from 1647 until the king's execution in January 1649).
Under drubbing, the big dictionary is precise, a little too precise for some tender readers.
It was possible that the word came from the Barbary states, in north Africa, where many Christians suffered. Owen Barfield, writing in History in English Words, said drubbing was thought to be an Arabic word brought back by suffering Christians from the Barbary states.
But opinions about the origin of the word differ. The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, published in 1811, said to drub was to beat with a stick or rope’s end.
Again Sir Thomas Herbert said the petitioner was almost drubd to death. I think he was referring to a different person there, but drubbed certainly had a good workout in those days.
Samuel Pepys in his diary said “he would have got seaman to have drubbed them”.
Under drubbing, the big dictionary is precise, a little too precise for some tender readers.
It says James Howell in 1640 said the Turks had all sorts of punishment, including drubbing, guunshing (I don’t know what that means, but I’m sure it represented some form of torture), flaying alive and impaling. But drubbing did not always result in death.
Samuel Butler, writing in Hudibras, commented on “the blows and drubs I have received”. A person who hands out the drubbing is called a drubman.
Now, I will have to ask why that newspaper person wanted to know. Actually, to be fair, she mentioned a sports commentator. Can you imagine the scene: Queensland gave NSW a drubbing in the State of Origin Rugby League match. No, it will never happen.
lauriebarber.com; lbword@midcoast.com.au