Nipple of Doom
This is as good a first paragraph as we'll see all year in The Book Review.
LONG before Janet Jackson and her -- let's face it -- dyspendulous Nipple of Doom, there were giants on the earth. There was Virginia (Ding Dong) Bell. And June Wilkinson. And Haji, the self-proclaimed extraterrestrial in high heels. And Sherri Knight, she of the 55-inch bust. And Uschi Digard, the Teutonic bombshell. And the terrifying Tura Satana. Strapping pioneer women, every one of them, who with their sisters dared bare their bodacious briskets for the lensman who introduced erotica to mass-market cinema in an era when simply walking and flashing at the same time could easily mean a trip to the slammer. ''Wardrobe malfunction''? For these fabled ''glamazons'' of early postwar America, it was a job description.
Merriam-Webster refuses to cough up a definition of "dyspendulous" and the only mention of it in Google is from this review.
How about it? Does anyone know what this word means?
UPDATE: We found a use of the word "dyspend" here.
<2marchaunt>2 Why syr, what than? What be you, I pray you?
<2knyght>2 Mary, I am a gentylman, I wold ye knew,
And may dyspend yerely five hundred mark land;
And I am sure all that ye have in hand
Of yerely rent is not worth five markys
Getting warmer!
UPDATE 2: Ah, so we've settled on "dispend," which, according to this dubious source, means
to weigh out, dispense
OK, we're befuddled.
UPDATE 3: Another one here, a passage from "The Great Marriage Hunt: Finding a Wife In Fifteenth-Century England."
The same day that I come to Norlache [Northleach in Gloucestershire], on a Sonday befor mattens from Burforde, Wylliam Mydwyntter wyllcwmyd me, and in howr comynycacyon he askyd me hefe I wher in any whay of maryayge. I towlde hyme nay, and he informeyd me that ther whos a [ eunge] genttylwhoman hos father ys name ys Lemryke, and her mother ys deyd, and sche schawll dyspend [inherit] be her moter xl li. a e(r), as thay say in that contre, and her father ys the gretteste rewlar a(n)d rycheste mane in that conttre . . .
LONG before Janet Jackson and her -- let's face it -- dyspendulous Nipple of Doom, there were giants on the earth. There was Virginia (Ding Dong) Bell. And June Wilkinson. And Haji, the self-proclaimed extraterrestrial in high heels. And Sherri Knight, she of the 55-inch bust. And Uschi Digard, the Teutonic bombshell. And the terrifying Tura Satana. Strapping pioneer women, every one of them, who with their sisters dared bare their bodacious briskets for the lensman who introduced erotica to mass-market cinema in an era when simply walking and flashing at the same time could easily mean a trip to the slammer. ''Wardrobe malfunction''? For these fabled ''glamazons'' of early postwar America, it was a job description.
Merriam-Webster refuses to cough up a definition of "dyspendulous" and the only mention of it in Google is from this review.
How about it? Does anyone know what this word means?
UPDATE: We found a use of the word "dyspend" here.
<2marchaunt>2 Why syr, what than? What be you, I pray you?
<2knyght>2 Mary, I am a gentylman, I wold ye knew,
And may dyspend yerely five hundred mark land;
And I am sure all that ye have in hand
Of yerely rent is not worth five markys
Getting warmer!
UPDATE 2: Ah, so we've settled on "dispend," which, according to this dubious source, means
to weigh out, dispense
OK, we're befuddled.
UPDATE 3: Another one here, a passage from "The Great Marriage Hunt: Finding a Wife In Fifteenth-Century England."
The same day that I come to Norlache [Northleach in Gloucestershire], on a Sonday befor mattens from Burforde, Wylliam Mydwyntter wyllcwmyd me, and in howr comynycacyon he askyd me hefe I wher in any whay of maryayge. I towlde hyme nay, and he informeyd me that ther whos a [ eunge] genttylwhoman hos father ys name ys Lemryke, and her mother ys deyd, and sche schawll dyspend [inherit] be her moter xl li. a e(r), as thay say in that contre, and her father ys the gretteste rewlar a(n)d rycheste mane in that conttre . . .
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