Both of these from Jeffrey Kacirk’s Forgotten Words:
HOYT
Hoyt, or hoit, is to act the romp or hoyden. Winsome and spirited maids go hoyting across the English stage of the seventeenth century.
Hoity-toity is an expansion of the same word and originally applied to frolicsome women. … The meaning of hoity-toity was altered to become an expression of petulance and surprised disgust, in which function it remains common.
The verb to hoit almost disappeared. It is a pity, as it went well with the racing and chasing of “delightful girles” [in] an anonymous poem of 1675, The Chase:
So ran, so sang, so hoyted the moone’s maids
Light as young leverettes [greyhounds] skip their buskin’d feet,
Spurning th’ enamell’d sward [grass] as they did fleet.— Ivor Brown, Book of Words (1944)
HOCHLE
To tumble lewdly with women in open day.
— John Mactaggart, Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (1824)
Here’s to a happy hochle in the new year…
Ah, to hochle with one’s hoity-toity. Heavenly!
What is “in open day”? Is that a particular day or something else? Thanks (feeling dumb).
Mary, I am thinking it means outside, during the day.
Hoity-toity is still around in the UK (at least the South), where it means someone with ideas above their station. “Look at her, all hoity toity because her son got into the Grammar School”
Or…
Open Day, opposite of Cover of Dark?
Just a thought.
1. I interpret “open day” as in “outside, in the open, in broad daylight.”
2. Hoity-toity is used in the US, in much the same way. It’s not current slang, but is generally understood.
I sent my question to ‘A Way with Words” which is a PBS radio show about word usage and etymology. I’m curious about when this phrase lost out to ‘in broad daylight.’ I Googled the phrase and it appears in everything from poetry and biblical translation to legal documents, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone use it in conversation. We’ll see what they say.
I’m going to try to spark a comeback.
I look forward to hearing your question, Mary. I’m a regular listener (to the podcast).
I learn two new words every week on NPR’s Says You, which I promptly forget, except for these two:
quisquillious: of the nature of garbage
ganch: to impale on a hook
When i was a driver for Domino’s Pizza, another driver and I would listen to the show on our deliveries. That night, we both got back at the same time and I said, “This place is so quisquillious. I’d like to ganch everybody here.” I’ve remembered those two words ever since!