Word of the day - dainty



Accidently the other day, the word of the day was dainty.  A twitter conversation ensued with various thoughts around being dainty (and not being dainty).  So there is was, stuck in my mind, leading to all sorts of thoughts and associations.  So, as usual I headed first to the dictionary:

Adjective:  Delicately small and pretty: “a dainty lace handkerchief” (do people still have handkerchieves?)

Noun:  Something good to eat; a delicacy

Synonyms:       Adjective. Delicate – nice – fine – elegant – tasty – delicious
                        Noun.  Delicacy – titbit – tidbit

Yet my first thoughts on thinking about the word dainty led me to think of Billy Dainty, I remembered the name but had to google him to find out who he was as he was just a name from my childhood.  I knew he had been on tv and vaguely thought he was a comedian, but nothing more than that.  I tried to work out where I knew the name from and from the google search I think it was probably from his work with Rod Hull and Emu.  As often, when you look someone up you find there is much more to them  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Dainty
  
The search for dainty also led me to find this rose – ‘Dainty Bess – I rather like it.   http://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/showrose.asp?showr=170 apparently it was bred in the UK by William Archer & Daughter who named the rose after his wife. Thus proving yet again that most of the very beautiful flowers you can get are named after the grower’s family.  I have been very good and I have not rushed and bought it, but  I think it would be a good addition to the garden.  I shall give it more thought, after all, we don't want the next word of the day to be bankruptcy now do we?

I do love where words can take you.

Comments

  1. Funny, when you tweeted this title Billy Dainty immediately sprang to my mind too. I think I saw him playing the Dame in panto at The Theatre Royal Windsor many years ago. Even if I didn't he should have, if you see what I mean. And I agree, that's a pretty rose. Isn't tinternet a marvelous thing!

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  2. Oh I might have seen him in Panto too - I never thought of that - we had to go every year, I hated it!

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  3. I think one definition of 'Dainty' might be ' The opposite of me'!

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  4. Dainty! yes I remember Billy Dainty, I also remember a penny caramel called a dainty. Dont start me off in reminiscing, wait till I get the hanky out of my pocket.

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