Sunday, January 13, 2008

Nilpferd's History Of Dondling



What follows is the development of Dondling, as taken from the RR comments. 


AlexaK

Comment No. 710851

'dondled - adj. - (verb: 'dondle) -- a variant of 'donded, a dialect peculiar to RR. From the Typographically Challenged "sedonded," via the English "Seconded."



For those less versed in the technical terminology of linguistics, here's an explanation in "plein English"..



frogprincess

Comment No. 660790

the 'sedonds' is a classic RR typo for 'seconds' and was kind of adopted as RR lingo as we all make typing mistakes, especially on a Friday night when the well earned glass of whatever kicks in. You know that moment when you're drinking champagne cos you have no prosecco left in the fridge?



But where did this expression really come from? How did it develop?

After about half an hour of lacklustre searching, the linguistic experts at RROS have put together this take it or leave it survey of the term "dondle", including this early forerunner of the expression:




ejaydee

Comment No. 508215

Secdonds for the SESAME STREET THEME TOON!!!!



The first recorded formal use followed shortly afterwards:



BlimpyMcFlah

Comment No. 529313

MASSIVE SEDONDS for Joy Division, as Atmosphere is my favourite and best song of theirs.

Also I would like to know when the "Massive Sedonds" t-shirt is going to be available from the Guardian shop. I for one would buy it, and on the back there could be a list of the 50 best music t-shirts as knocked up by jasonaparkes



..After some chin-stroking, nodding and a few sips of wine, the well oiled RR call-and-response mechanism kicked into place..



DarceysDad

Comment No. 539762

By the way, Blimpy, I'm working on the Massive Sedonds T-shirts ...



Tempusfugit

Comment No. 576906

FP, have you got a keyboard with 2 'ds' on it (as in 'sedonds') or am I missing something?



What great invention didn't have its near misses? We are left to wonder what might have been...



Bathmat

Comment No. 637731

Everyone's sedonding Heatwave by Martha Reeves & the Vs, which I happily thirdond



saneshane

Comment No. 722479

extraordondary thrids PLEASE



BlimpyMcFlah

Comment No. 733409

GIGANTIC DONDALOONDIES



The point of no return, however, was reached on the landmark date of August 17 with the first official recognition of the term- from here, there was no going back..



Dorianlynskey

Comment No. 647414

Morning all

CLARIFICATION TIME
I'm counting sedonds as individual posters' first choices. So if you've already picked, say, The One I Love, then you can't sedond, say, 1 Thing.



Now the usage was firmly established, it wasn't long before the desire for formal acceptance made itself felt..



ShivSidecar

Comment No. 647216

As a little 100th birthday diversion, can anybody supply me with the etymology of the verb "to sedond"? And a citation of its first use? (Or is it one of those if-you-have-to-ask-you'll-never-understand thangs?)



some of the earlier investigations into the etymology of the term are yet to be verified...



lukethedrifter

Comment No. 647369

wow, so clearly 'sedonding' is already mythical, and everyone has their own sedond story. For my part, I assert that the first recorded example of sedonding was found in the Tao Te Ching. The specific verse in question reads:

'The way that can be seen
is not the constant way;
is not water more powerful than stone,
for a river may flow through granite.
Is not Nick Cave the way?
For there are sedonds in profusion'.



frogprincess

Comment No. 712181

Dond: Etym. 15th cen. Be-dondle [expressing support, emotional or political] "Methinks I have a lay bedondled" [15th century ode by Pater Darcum]



and, as with any popular phrase, the early history was littered with variations and abbrieviations:



BlimpyMcFlah

Comment No. 657714

Immediate and massive 'donds to the Fannies and Buggles



severin

Comment No. 669938

eerrmm ... "sendondly" (?)



frogprincess

Comment No. 710228

(which I instantly 'dondle')



alicksboots

Comment No. 713865

Donds and thrids to it.



murphsup

Comment No. 711997

Oh yes, this is bloody marvellous. Ultradonded!!



a quick look at some of the areas our linguists are currently wrangling over...



ElDerino

Comment No. 712472

Re the great dondling debate - surely a dondle must in fact be the diminutive of dond, which would make it kind of the opposite of the "massive seconds", to be used when you're pretty keen on a song, but don't quite feel it's up there in the pantheon...



AlexaK

Comment No. 712644

while it's a good idea, I'm not sure if 'Dondlation Intensity (*TM) should be inversely proportional to the degree of variation from the original term, as these were intended as synonyms. Perhaps we should do as the Romans do and use appropriate suffixes... Dondlino/Dondlissimo...?
Just a thought...



In the initial period of expansion, it was inevitable that franchises would be developed...

orangeairplane

Comment No. 722289

Mcdondles for sentimental heavy rock-songs.



Let's not pretend the road was wide and straight, however. A stubborn rearguard resisted to the end... before it was ruthlessly eradicated..



mattinthehat

Comment No. 614903

sedonds (sic);



ruskin

Comment No. 660574

I too have no idea about how to do so, what sedonds means, etc, can't be bothered to trawl the archive, and really don't want anyone to go to any trouble that would basically be tiresome to one and all.



DickDastardly

Comment No. 710818

can anyone tell an old man what "Dondle" means? I'm lost.



Proudfoot

Comment No. 710917

@dickDastardly et al: "Let me explain something to you. Um, I do not "Second". You Second. I Dond. So that's what you call it. You know, that or, uh, His Dondness, or uh, Donder, or El Donderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing"
Apologies to The Big Lebowski.



DickDastardly

Comment No. 710964

donding is very silly, grow up



Mark68

Comment No. 711233

Being told that donding is silly by someone called DickDastardly... you've gotta love this blog.



Expansion into foreign languages:



murphsup

Comment No. 626541

Also muchos sedondos for Rachid Taha's Rock El Casbah



TonNL

Comment No. 714928

More international dondling:
Dutch: dondelen: ik dondel (present), ik dondelde (past), ik heb gedondeld (past perfect): to support certain things wholeheartedly



ejaydee

Comment No. 714296

If one wants to mark strong agreement, should it be dondlised, as in "you've just been dondlised my friend!"

More international vocabulary: dondler, je dondele nous dondelons.
Dondlar, eu dondlo, voce dondle (maybe I should insert a diphtong here)
Esp: dondlar, yo dondlo, he dondlado...



gordonimmel

Comment No. 711812

If we're going to move 'dondle into the German language, shouldn't it be 'Gedondlet' or are you claiming that it's a strong verb?



It remained only to complete the formalities of establishing standard units of reference..



DarceysDad

Comment No. 691688

a kilo of 'donds.



and developing the inevitable double entendres..



tracyk

Comment No. 711063

Oooh, Darceysdad, what a massive dondle you have...for The Sundays Monochrome...I feel dirty now.



To close, it's worth taking a moment to reflect on the statement "the iceberg is always much larger under water than it appears to be above":



BlimpyMcFlah

Comment No. 585957

Nuge sedonds ofr Martha Wainwright's swaery number

21 comments:

DarceysDad said...

Cracking post, Gromit, er I mean Blimpy ... or nilpferd ... oh I am SO tired.

BTW - the T-shirts are still on the board (box of T-s and packet of iron-on transfer printer sheets bought); but I haven't managed to find time to persuade the design team to agree on a final format. Given that the 'team' is just me, I realise that's quite scarily poor form, but it means we're still open to suggestions - hark, the sound of floodgates opening!!

ejaydee said...

Classic! I am quite proud to be the first purveyor of the word that started out as a typo and is now a shoo-on for new word of the year 2008. Well if w00t can be, I don't see hwy a dond can't.

Blimpy said...

Nilp wrote this, I only posted it up. It's bloody hilarious.

Top one Nilp! Best post yet!

goneforeign said...

Well it's long been on my mind that the time for our attorneys to contact those at The Oxford Unabridged Dictionary is well past. Here's a brand new word and they're always on the lookout for those, there's a fortune at stake here, we could finance this entire enterprise plus provide holidays in Provence for all the staff if this is handled properly. Blimpy is very competent, I move that we give him total authority to negotiate on our behalf, do I have a 'dond'?

steenbeck said...

I feel such a surge of affection for RR and all involved

Blimpy said...

@steenbeck, i felt the same way after reading nilp's mighty greatest hits of RR

@goneforeign - what? there's a reward for for this sort a thing? i don't flumxing believe it!

Blimpy said...

New words, a how-to:

http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/newwords/newwordsdict/?view=uk

nilpferd said...

It's official as far as I can see, Ejaydee and Blimpy.. or should I say, "The donds brothers".

Thanks for the comments people, it's all your own work!

I hadn't intended to make it so long, but after a bit of ctrl-F ing I turned up so many great comments it seemed best to let them speak for themselves.. some day I'll have to post the original, unmixed sessions.. wait until it's in the Oxford, though.. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Stellar post. Wise, erudite, informed. Nominated for inclusion in next month's issue of "The Linguist".

Anonymous said...

Sigh!
There I was thinking I'd given a pretty good answer to this question for debbym last night but now....
Like a charachter in this week's B-List I Hang My Head

goneforeign said...

Next thing we need is an official song, I like the pne that goes
"There's something happening here,
What it is 'ain't exactly clear..."

But it soon will be!

DarceysDad said...

@ goneforeign - we've got one. Click the link.

Why is this showing 'No longer available' up above?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fauwRmKg-s

ShivSidecar said...

Whenever I cite "singles" (7" plastic discs; ask your uncle) on RR I want to render them as "snigles". But I'm afraid that Joe & Jane Reader will just assume that I'm a muddle-fingered berk who can't type. So, dear readers, perhaps you could support me in this noble endeavour? "Train To Skaville - what a rip-snorting snigle!" - that kind of thing. God bless and good evening.

PS. I lay claim to the phrases "golden dondle" and "spandex dondle". What I'll do with them I can't imagine. [Wear 'em on your head. - Ed.]

nilpferd said...

Shiv- spandex and golden made the longlist.. keep your eyes peeled for "the dondle sessions", where I'll be mixing some of the unreleased material... probably out sometime just before christmas...;-)

Anonymous said...

*Tries posting a response to the right thread, daft cow that I am*

How humiliating to be the Sid James to everyone else's Ned Sherrin. Colour me ashamed...

nilpferd said...

Tracyk- your post brought a certain je ne sais quoi to the article- without it, the whole thing would have been a touch drabber. No need to be ashamed. Many thanks!

Anonymous said...

Yes, it brought filth! Still, let's stick to one's metier, eh? Thanks for this, it brought back a nostalgic warmth for the dedicated RRers who make the place so wunnerful.

DarceysDad said...

Actually, I have to defend Tracy's honour here: from memory I set her up for that line with my original request for support on that song nomination.

Anonymous said...

My honour! There's a mythical beast, up there with the unicorn and the phoenix! Thanks Rich!

DarceysDad said...

You're welcome. I do a neat line in puddle-covering capes too.

goneforeign said...

TracyK, daft cow that you are; please, please, please, never change one iota. I grew up listening to people who talked just like that, even did it me'sen, until them down south bred it outer me.
So please never stop.
In my first job at an electronic parts assembly line in Erith, Kent where In was supposed to be the 'inspector', I, without thinking called an old lady 'you silly cow!' She picked up a hammer and chased me the length of the factory whilest all the 'girls' cheered!
Please never stop.