Monday, February 1, 2010

This week's Bajanism - Duppy umbrella

I know what you're about to say, but you're wrong, I haven't done this one already. It was suggested to me by a guest star we had over at the house of T over the weekend, and as she so rightfully pointed out, is a true bajanism whereas the term "duppy" is found throughout the caribbean. So here we go---


Pronunciation: \ˈdʌpɪ\ˌəm-ˈbre-lə\

Function : noun

Etymology: Caribbean: Barbados

Definition:

1: The term "duppy umbrella" is often, but not exclusively, applied to poisonous mushrooms or to those that have the classic umbrella-like cap-and-stem form. Between 1400 and 1600 A.D., the terms tadstoles, frogstooles, frogge stoles, tadstooles, tode stoles, toodys hatte, paddockstool, puddockstool, paddocstol, toadstoole, and paddockstooles sometimes were used synonymously with mushrom, mushrum, muscheron, mousheroms, mussheron, or musserouns

(definition actually sourced via wikiworldorder)

2 comments:

  1. When I lived in Barbados in the late 1960s there was a very good surf break right up north on the west coast of the island called Duppy Umbrella. It was mostly a right hand break with a tricky shifting peak to take off on. Does it still go by that name?
    John N.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's been abbreviated to just "Duppies" now. But I really appreciate that as I've never known the origin of the name!

    ReplyDelete

I'm all for freedom of expression and shit, so there's only one rule here and, that is, perchance you do know who I am, kindly refrain from using my real name or your comment will be removed