Alpha, Treacle, Beta, Dogger, Snow – what do they mean to you?

Words, all of them, probably mean something completely different to all of us. English is one of the most descriptive languages with many meanings for the same or similar things, or something completely different.

If I said “treacle” to you – what would you think? A very dark, sweet, sticky substance. If I said “treacle mine” – and we have one locally here in East Sussex – what would your mind tell you? Codswallop? (Twentieth century slang for ‘Nonsense’: ‘Cod [You can’t cod me] You can’t take me in or deceive me .. oh no?!) ... but a mine full of treacle?

Alice in Wonderland – theatrical release poster (film 2010)

Actually when we were growing up, we always had golden syrup, never the very dark ‘black treacle’, as it was known, which I found bitter. The reason the word ‘treacle’ is syrupping its way round my blog .. is because the new film “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is opening tonight in London.

The “treacle well” that features in The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, held at Binsey, Oxfordshire, is referred to in an article I read .. and I suppose in my youth I imagined just that: a well able to pump up treacle to have with my scones and cream for tea: delicious and permanently on tap – what could be better for a small child?

Treacle wells are fairly well known in England – Henry VIII even took Catherine of Aragon to St Margaret’s Church in Binsey on pilgrimage in the hope that the waters would help her conceive a son, while four hundred years earlier the local priest, Nicholas Breakspear, went on to become Adrian IV, the only British Pope (1154 – 1159).

St Margaret's Well, Binsey, Oxfordshire

The ancient Greeks gave the name “treacle” to several sorts of antidotes (panaceas), but ultimately it was applied chiefly to Venice treacle (theriaca androchi), a compound of some 64 drugs in honey. Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535) speaks of “a most strong treacle against these venomous heresies”.

“Theriac” was the medical concoction originally formulated by the Greeks in the first century AD and became popular throughout the ancient world as far away as China and India via the Silk Route trading links. By the medieval age treacle meant a medicinal compound for healing. It is likely that ‘treacle wells’ came to mean springs with not too wholesome waters, those contaminated with mineralisation, for example of arsenic, iron or manganese.

I’m calling time on treacle, though I could go on! As we’re thinking about Alice and children perhaps Alpha and Beta should come next .....

“A" can be traced to a pictogram an ox head in Egyptian hieroglyph or the Proto-Semitic ox’s head, Phoenician Aleph, Greek alpha, Etruscan "A" to the Roman "A", so similar to our "A" today.

Egyptian

Proto-Semitic Ox's Head

Phoenician aleph

Greek Alpha

Etruscan "A"

Roman "A"

The letter “A” (Alpha) tells the story in summary as shown above in this depiction through the eras, and with the second letter of the Greek alphabet, “beta” makes up the word “Alphabet”. The alphabet we use today, the twenty six characters of the Roman alphabet can be used for almost every language in the world; whereas Chinese has 45,000+ symbols, with an educated Chinese person using about 1,600 of these, but the man-in-the-street only about 1,500.

Early Greek alphabet on pottery in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens

I was going to write about the Dogger Bank – the underwater sand bank in the North Sea between England and Scandinavia, which at one time, as Doggerland, connected England with Europe and we could walk across. Then up pops the word ‘dogger’ meaning a Dutch boat, a sailing ketch developed in the 17th century, for the fishing vessels that plied the waters around the area we now know as the Dogger Bank marked in red.

I also got to thinking about that dreadful word “snow” that we all seem to have had enough of this year – in English we have one word “snow”, but I’m sure I remember in the Danish book by writer Peter Hoeg, “Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow”, he stated that there are 26 words in Danish for snow! So much for English being a very descriptive language as far as snow is concerned. Yes we have sleet ... but nothing to describe the different facets of snow – soft, light, damp, crystal etc etc .

Then of course I did not know that “snow” is another word for a Dutch boat! It’s a type of brig, often referred to as “snow-brigs” – perhaps the two famous brig names you may recognise are the Lawrence and Niagara, American warships of the Battle of Lake Erie (1813). However this picture by Charles Brooking painted in 1759 is magnificent, I think.

A naval snow, by Charles Brooking, 1759

As you can see our Alphabet developed and became mixed and more refined as the lexicographers worked their magic over time. The humans spread language, mixed roots and allowed through regional differences, their nomadic wanderings, their exploration to see ‘what lay over the ocean’, this magnificent legacy that we have today which is WORDS. A way to describe our life, remember past lives through writings and stories from millennia ago, and to converse, post and journal our way with words for our readers.

Dear Mr Postman – we have had our fair share of rain down here , but in Scotland they’ve had lots of snow .. and it is miserable for all concerned – let’s hope the lengthening days will bring the slightly warmer weather with some sun and dryness thrown in. My mother slept through all the damp – that was a wise thing to do .. and sometimes (quite often) I’d like to jump in beside her and have a good zizz – like the hibernating animals – though I’d be grateful to find my fridge still well stocked, when I awoke!!

Hilary Melton-Butcher
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