There are so many wonderful words in Dr Johnson’s Dictionary that don’t get the attention they deserve. Let’s dust them off and bring them back
hasty-pudding. n.s. A pudding made of milk and flower, boiled quick together; as also of oatmeal and water boiled together.
I don’t know what I’d think if someone gave me flour and water slop and told me it was my pudding. But I think this word can be adapted for today and used to refer to cakes and pancakes that come out of a packet and/or container. Some people call these cakes ‘packet mixes’ but ‘hasty-pudding’ says it all
Example of this word in literature:
Charles Sackville (1638-1706), 6th Earl of Dorset, poet, and courtier wrote this in his poem titled To Mr Edward Howard, On His Incomparable, Incomprehensible Poem, Called The British Princes
Sure hasty-pudding is thy chiefest dish,
With bullock’s liver, or some stinking fish:
Garbage, ox-cheeks, and tripes, do feast thy brain,
Which nobly pays this tribute back again. (Dorset)
4 responses so far ↓
1 PrimroseRoad // Aug 26, 2008 at 11:10 am
The 1st Earl of Dorset (Thomas Sackville, who wrote the first English blank-verse tragedy) must have been so proud …
2 squib // Aug 26, 2008 at 11:51 am
Ah Thomas! Surely another candidate for the Bard?
3 Matilda // Aug 26, 2008 at 3:34 pm
‘The Hasty Pudding Club was founded by Nymphus Hatch, a junior at Harvard College, in 1790. The club is named for the traditional American dish that the founding members ate at their first meeting. ‘
Poor boy - with a name like Nymphus, you’d have to create your own if you wanted to belong to a club, wouldn’t you? I didn’t know hasty pudding was an American dish, but you’d think a bunch of Harvard toffs could afford more than flour and water slop.
We have boxed puddings called “Puddin-Quik”. Hasty Pudding sounds so much more genteel. Sniff.
4 squib // Aug 26, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Hi Til, nah it’s a British dish. I don’t think old Samuel put anything American in his dictionary
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