Pell-mell
The other day my sister and I were waiting for a table at Bertucci’s. A little girl, maybe three years old, was running down the aisle, away from her mother. I asked Meghan (since she has had lots of experience working with little kids in daycare) what makes little kids go running around pell-mell like that.
“Pell-mell?”
“You know, like, helter-skelter. Headlong.”
She thought I’d made pell-mell up, maybe confusing it with Pall Mall, the cigarettes, or the street in London. I guess maybe “pell-mell” isn’t a word that’s really used in everyday conversation. But it happened to be the first that popped into my head, for whatever reason.
Oh, and Memorial Day I got pulled over for speeding (49mph on a street with no posted speed limit, which I was informed defaults to 30mph). Luckily, I only got a warning, so I can still say I’ve never gotten anything but parking tickets. Anyway, I was embarrassed to get caught speeding, and told the officer that I must have been “wool-gathering“. I wasn’t even sure if this was a real English expression, or whether I had just been reading way too much Robert Jordan. At any rate, the officer didn’t make any comment on my choice of phrase.
I guess I read too much.
Though the shoe was on the other foot a couple of years ago, when a friend used the word “sidewards” in the midst of conversation. I was convinced he had made it up, since I had never remembered seeing or hearing it before, and because it sounds so awkward. “Sideways” sounds so much nicer. But lo and behold, I was wrong.
I won’t even get started on my mispronounciations, a result of reading many words before ever hearing them. Even after hearing them, I tend to be stubborn and think they should be pronounced my way!
June 14th, 2004 at 7:50 pm
I don’t think it’s just kids…
Not too long ago a friend, who was selling exotic cars, let me drive a Porsche he was trying to sell around for a spin. I remember getting all “pell-mell” about the experience as well.
June 14th, 2004 at 8:06 pm
I’ve often heard pell-mell (I didn’t know it was hyphenated, also, define:pell-mell on Google turns up “harum-scarum”, and Webster says pell-mell is from the Middle French word pelemele, no definition given), can’t say I was familiar with wool gathering. Is that collecting the dust bunnies of your mind? I love this kind of stuff, a search for pell-mell on Britannica turned up “pall-mall”, from the Italian “pallamaglio”, palla, ball and maglio, mallet, an obsolete French game resembling croquet, first mentioned in the 17th century.
I get stubborn about language too. I hate waiting in line, but I hate it more when the people in line are waiting “on line”. Let’s not mention the Brits “queing up”, shiver.
June 15th, 2004 at 3:05 pm
Mark–certainly it’s not limited to kids, but I think the constant state (?) of pell-mell is unique to little kids around that age. I wish I had that sort of boundless energy. Though actually, I might end up going crazy since my job requires me to sit for hours at a time.
Hass–I hate that too! You’re standing in a line with other people–and usually it doesn’t involve standing on a line drawn on the ground or anything, so why “on line”? Especially now that “on line” now has another meaning referring to computer networks.
June 18th, 2004 at 6:58 pm
You seriously have way too much time on your hands at work if you are writing about this stuff on your webpage.
June 18th, 2004 at 7:01 pm
It didn’t take that long to write, and sometimes you just gotta take a break.
Anyway, it was after 6pm.