Tag Archives: Will Rees mystries

The pitfalls of language (for a Historical fiction writer)

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Usually, when I write about language, I write about idioms. There is nothing like a dated idiom to drop into your story and stop the action. And idioms are tricky. Some, even some we use all the time, are ancient. I think of ‘strike while the iron is hot’ which, although phrased different according to the century, has been around for hundreds of years.

But some idioms enjoy a brief spurt of popularity and are never heard from again. When was the last time you heard ‘Like the bees knees’? And of course, new idioms are always being created.

In this post, though, I am going to discuss a few words. They can be even trickier than the idioms. We use our familiar language frequently without thought, as I was reminded recently. And believe me, if you add an anachronism to your novel, someone is sure to know.

So the first word is clue. That has to be new, right? Probably created during the thirties, with Agatha Christie. No, my friends. Clue is very old, from Middle English, where it was spelled clew and meant ball of thread. The modern spelling is from the mid-1620s. Gradually, the meaning changed to it points the way.

Well, what about okay? Now, there is a word that has spread across the globe. If you watch foreign language movies, the word okay comes up regularly. I was told many years ago that it originated in an American Indian language – Choctaw to be exact – because missionaries signed letters Okeh. Okay, it turns out, was an editorial joke, created in 1839. It was popularized by Martin Van Buren.

Finally, hello. Who could question hello? Well, this word is a newbie. It may be an alteration of hallo from the High German, It was used for the first documented time in 1834. Thomas Alva Edison is credited with its use as a telephone greeting.

Even our common language lays traps for the unwary writer!

Midwives and Midwifery

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During the course of the Will Rees mysteries, midwives have made appearances in several books. Lydia herself has had occasion to require the services of a midwife and (spoiler alert) will need her again.

Midwives have a long history. There are references to midwives in Ancient Greek and Roman texts as well as in the Bible.

In the seventeenth century, however, the reliance on midwives began to diminish. Male doctors began to claim they were the proper individuals to help women deliver their babies. The men were educated while the women were ignorant. (And that was the kindest insult. They were also accused of being lazy, dirty and drunk.)

In A Midwife’s Tale; the Life of Martha Ballard, 1785 – 1812, edited by Laura Thatcher Ulrich, the midwife’s perception was much different. Most of these women had borne children themselves (although not all) and they were very experiences. Usually a younger woman would shadow an older midwife (it was not always a formal apprenticeship) to learn the necessary skills.

The male doctors, although they believed themselves far better at this, did not have the years of practice. In the above autobiography, there is a harrowing scene in which the male doctor takes the baby in a breech birth out in pieces. He had not learned to massage the mothers abdomen to turn the baby for the birth

The male doctors were also guilty of spreading puerperal fever. They would not wash their hands after dissecting corpses, going immediately to deliver babies. This has been well documented.

The account by Martha Ballard illustrates both the difficulties and the rewards of this profession. She leaves home at all hours and during all weathers to deliver babies. But she is far better paid for her skills than she would have been at any other type of ‘women’s work’,

It was her proud claim that, during all her years of practice, she lost only three babies.