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Re-write the dictionary!

17/09/2009

Is a stingo a bee on the go? Is a fopdoodle a picture drawn by a foppish gentleman? And is a maffle an Australian waffle?

To get to the bottom of these complex issues, Lichfield District Council's tourism team, along with the team at The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum are asking visitors to www.lichfield2009.com to come up with definitions for ten weird and wonderful words that were in Johnson's dictionary, but have since fallen out of popular use.

The words include: stingo, fopdoodle, maffle, skimbleskamble, twangling, fancymonger, bellygod, badger-legged, blobber and kissingcrust.

Elizabeth Thatcher, Tourism Manager for Lichfield District Council, said: "These are fantastic words but their real meanings are not immediately obvious, so we thought it would be a fun way to celebrate Dr Johnson's birthday by asking everyone to put their thinking caps on and create their own definitions.

"To see the list of words and to add definitions, simply visit www.lichfield2009.com/words and click on the 'define' button next to the word you want to define. Or, if you need some inspiration and want see what other people have suggested, just click on the 'see definitions' button."

The best new definitions, along with Johnson's actual definitions, will be displayed on a series of special edition postcards that will be on sale in Lichfield in 2010.

 

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