Sunday, November 16, 2008

Gleemonger


When I was walking up the street this evening, I looked up and saw the word "IRONMONGER" built into the stone facade of an old building that now houses a fish and chip shop.

"Now there's a word you don't hear much these days," I thought. "Monger. Certainly not in the sense of somebody who sells something, anyway. Why aren't car salesmen called carmongers? Why aren't there shoemongers? Bookmongers? Meatmongers?".

Apart from fishmonger (which you don't hear much), all the uses of "monger" these days that I can think of are negative - scaremonger, gossipmonger, hatemonger, warmonger.

Anyhoo, there is no point to this waffling, except for that I have decided to try to rescue monger from its negative connotations by calling myself a gleemonger. I wish I'd thought of that when I named my blog....

I have also decided I want to marry a man whose last name is Gleeson...might be reducing the pool of available men to a dribble however...

7 comments:

Julian said...

And rumourmonger. You're right: you don't really hear it used in anything but a negative way these days. (For some reason, my mind went and found a negative connotation for fishmonger: does anyone remember Unhygienix from Asterix? ;) )

Good luck with restoring monger to its original status! ;)

Jayne said...

Thank you, Julian. I think I will need it. Wonder if I could list gleemonger as my occupation on forms?

Sorry, don't remember much about Asterix at all, except that the boys liked it.

Anonymous said...

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The list of 8 certainly started something !

Anonymous said...

Oh, gleemonger would have been an awesome blog name :-) You're right, how did that word get a negative connotation?

Julian said...

"Thank you, Julian. I think I will need it. Wonder if I could list gleemonger as my occupation on forms?"

*L* Well I know -I'd- be amused by it. ;)

Earl Riser said...

Hi Ms Gleemonger.
You`re right Jayne, monger isn`t used as much these days as it should.
Ha ha, Unhygenix, makes me laugh too!!Gawd, they had some funny names.I`ll have to sit down and watch some of the dvd`s I have.Haven`t looked at them as yet, had them awhile too.

You asked in your reply, what sort of non-fiction I read.Well, often about people I consider who lead interesting lives, auto/biographies mainly.
Lately been reading about the real people in the Melbourne gang wars, the T.V. series got me started(I didn`t watch it though, way past my bed time!!)Music being my main interest in life, is my favourite topic.anyone else watch "Rockwiz"?
That would havta be me favourite T.V. show, hmmmmm.
And Jayne, have you ever been to a Rockwiz, show? Live audience thing.And Gee Julia Zmerio, is HOTTTT!!!
Though really I think they do have very god gust performers.
Ah well, wayne reckons he`s taken up enough of your space, for now.

Jayne said...

Hi abbeysmum. Thanks for that link. Decluttering is big business these days, it seems.

Hello Marelisa. Alas...probably too late to change now. =(

Hi Julian. I have listed gleemonger on my myspace profile as my occupation, but I am seriously thinking of writing it on a form to see if I can get away with it! I'll keep you posted (not that I fill in forms very often, so don't hold your breath).

Hello Earl. I rarely watch RockWiz, partly because I forget it's on and my SBS reception is poor. I have been to a live taping of it though, but not at the Espy - they did one in the gardens last year for Moomba, which was fun. Julia Zemirro is quite captivating and amusing.