word of the day

Today's word is nugatory "trifling, useless, of little import", first used in 1603 per my OED.

hunh!

In the 1541 subsidy roll of London I came across an instance of the name <Marmaduke>, and thought "Huh, Marmaduke is a funny name. I wonder what it's origins are?" Checking Withycombe, she says: "This looks like Irish Maelmaedoc 'servant of Maedoc', which would easily become Marmaduke (the usual medieval spelling) in Anglo-Norman." If this is true, this is the only instance of a Gaelic name being adopted by the Anglo-Normans that I have ever seen. All the traditional Gaelic names which were used in pre-1600 England, e.g. <Brian>, <Patrick>, <Bridget>, etc., all actually arrived in England via routes other than Ireland (such as Brittany).