Toffee for my feast day

Today is a day close to my heart: the feast of St. Catherine. The patron saint of unmarried women, she was invoked thus:

Sweet St. Catherine,

A husband, St. Catherine,

Handsome, St. Catherine,

Rich, St. Catherine,

Soon, St. Catherine!

Francophone Canadians traditionally make and eat taffy on this day. The words "taffy" and "toffee" are related, the former being the earlier version, used in Scotland and surviving there and in North America. Although its exact origin is unknown, it is possible that it is linked to the word "tough," as taffy and toffee are notoriously chewy.

Soldiering on

“Soldier” and “solid” both come from the Latin word solidus (whole, complete). A solidus nummus was a “complete coin”, that is, a solid gold coin. Shortened to solidus and then to “sold” (which is related to "solder", but not the past tense of "sell", which is another word entirely), it was borrowed into English in the 1300s to designate money paid to people in the army, who therefore became “soldiers”.

What a guy!

Despite being very common, the word “guy” has been at our disposal to mean “person” for only the past 150 years. The original “guy” was Guy Fawkes, who attempted to blow up the British Houses of Parliament on November 5^th, 1605 as an act of protest against mistreatment of Catholics. Since then, bizarrely clad effigies, or “guys” have been burnt on this anniversary, called “Bonfire Night”, in Great Britain (and also in Newfoundland). Odd-looking men started to be called “guys” in the early 1800s, and then gradually, in North America at least, the term was applied to people in general.

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