Some people who didn’t exist have entries in the Dictionary of National Biography and some words that don’t exist have entries in the Oxford English Dictionary. One such is primet, which was ‘erroneously stated by Prior to occur in the Grete Herball as the name of the primrose, and used by him to suggest an etymology for privet. No such word is there found.’ That Prior was Richard Prior, author of Popular Names of British Plants (1863).
Some of this worries Mr Noel Petty, the great competition winner. He has sent me a couplet from a madrigal, ‘Trust not too much, fair youth, unto thy feature’, by Orlando Gibbons:
What are we to make of that, if primet is a Loch Ness Logomenon?Sweet violets are gathered in their spring,White primit falls without enpitying.
I rather fear Orlando Gibbons’s youth might have been expected to contemplate the privet, even if Prior’s etymology is baseless.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in