Talk:Nosegay

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Use of "tussie-mussie" in Victorian era

FYI

– Section heading added by Undead Shambles (talk) 23:13, 1 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I have doubts about any claim that the "tussie-mussie" was popular during the Victorian era. "Nosegays" may have been, but OED has no 19th-century citations for "tussie-mussie" in this sense at all--they enter the word as "tuzzy-muzzy," by the way, and suggest that the term was revived in the 20th century, presumably after falling into disuse around the beginning of the 18th century.

A search on Google Books, limiting results to publication dates 1800 to 1900, turns up only a couple of lexicons listing "tussie-mussie" as a synonym for "nosegay"; it gives no actual references to people giving each other "tussie-mussies." Doing the same search for "nosegay" turns up over 800 hits.

65.213.77.129 (talk) 18:32, 19 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Posy

I find it pretty difficult to accept what this article purports: that posy is not a type of flower, but a bouquet of flowers. How could you have a 'pocketful' of bouquets? Homer offered Marge 'a bouquet of posies.' — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.206.153 (talk) 02:24, 17 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it could be that it isn't using the modern meaning of pocket, but rather the older meaning which was "a bag or sack," or it could even be a flower pocket which is a fist-sized hole in a wood post or stone pedestal in which a bundle of flowers were put as part of some pagan religious rituals, or used in homes for scenting (much like a vase of flowers serves today, except for decoration instead of smell). — al-Shimoni (talk) 12:11, 3 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

etymology

http://www.word-detective.com/0806B.html#tussymussy

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tus1.htm --Espoo (talk) 07:15, 25 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]