FUTPNBC Part IV - Mostly About Santa's Clothing

Yes, by popular acclaim it’s time again for that serial installment in the popular Follow Up to The PedanticNight Before Christmas. Okay, there has been no “acclaim” and it’s not really “popular” but it keeps me off the streets.

This week: cuirass, culm, tatterdemalion, and surfeit.

Let’s begin with the cuirass of fur St. Nick wore. A cuirass originally was the armor that covered the chest and back on a suit of armor. Actually it originally was a covering of leather worn to protect from harm, but with the invention of armor leather became passe. Cuirass comes from the Middle French word cuirasse and dates in English from the 15^th century. The Middle French took it from the Late Latin phrase coriacea vestia, which meant garment of leather. The meaning of cuirass has broadened, even referring to armor that covers a ship. So any protective garment is a cuirass. And certainly St. Nick’s garb qualifies, since the culm from the millions of chimneys down which he goes could be destructive.

Culm is the word used for coal dust, especially anthracite. There’s another culm that has an entirely different meaning and etymology (something about grass stalks) but that obviously has nothing to do with Christmas or St. Nick. The culm of which we speak came down from Middle English (in the early 1300s when it was spelled colme). Prior to that we can only guess. But the gathering culm on St. Nick’s cuirass wouldn’t make him tatterdemalion.

Tatterdemalion’s meaning is given away from its first two syllables: tatter. It means “a shabby person”, one whose clothing is in tatters. I’ve heard it used most often of children, but it can apply to anyone in tattered rags. Tatter comes from the Old Norse word toturr, or rag, and came into English as a verb in the mid-1300s. The –demalion ending was originally separated by hyphens with a double l and an a instead of an o (tatter–de-mallian). Where de-mallian came from is unknown, but it is now a family name, as are Demillion and Demallion. But then Hostetler is spelled various ways as well and we don’t know what it meant originally either. There is a surfeit of possibilities.

A surfeit is an excessive amount of anything, like toys. It is often but not exclusively used of food, causing either general disgust or a “crapulous feeling” (that's the word my dictionary used) of being uncomfortably full. The original meaning, which arrived in English in the early 1300s, meant an excess amount of anything. Food didn’t come into the meaning until the late 1300s. It comes from the Old French word surfet, which meant excess, and was created from the parts sur- (meaning “over”) and faire (meaning “do”). Faire came from the Latin word facere, which means “to make” and from which we got nidificate among other words.

Surfeit is a good word, and can be used to describe a buffet of substantial proportions (anyone been on a cruise with a midnight buffet?) or political discourse, or excessive jabbering of any sort. (Not that I know anyone who is an excessive talker.) This is probably a good time to stop. I don’t want to have a surfeit of expressions about talking.