what does 'nonny' mean?
anonymous
about Nothing"). it aroused my question, i.e., what does the nonny
mean here?
additionally, does the leavy here mean the engery that summer emits?
or anyone would like to explain it are
also welcomed.
i appreciate it sincerely.
==========poem =========beg
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh nor more;
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never;
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny;
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into. Hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no mo,
Or dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy.
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into. Hey, nonny, nonny.
==========poem =========end
Stewart Hargrave
wrote:
>lately i read about the poem "Sigh No More, Ladies..." (From "Much Ado
>about Nothing"). it aroused my question, i.e., what does the nonny
>mean here?
It's a nonsense word with no particular meaning, but was typical of
English folk songs of that era. It imparts rhythm, implies jollity,
punctuates a song and provides a chorus which everyone can join in
with.
The phrase "hey-nonny-no", and variations of it, have now become
something of a derisive way to reference traditional English folk
songs, in the same way that people describe stereotypical Irish music
as "tiddly-i-ti" music.
>additionally, does the leavy here mean the engery that summer emits?
I'm guessing that it would now be 'leafy' - that is, bearing leaves.
So in context:
>The fraud of men was ever so,
> Since summer first was leavy.
Men have always been dishonest
Ever since leaves grew in summer
Compare this to the second line in the song
Men were deceivers ever
--
TSH
For email, replace 'SpamOnlyToHere' with my initials
Harvey Van Sickle
> On 6 Apr 2005 08:50:35 -0700, newb...@yahoo.com.tw (anonymous)
> wrote:
>
>> lately i read about the poem "Sigh No More, Ladies..." (From
>> "Much Ado about Nothing"). it aroused my question, i.e., what
>> does the nonny mean here?
>
> It's a nonsense word with no particular meaning, but was typical
> of English folk songs of that era. It imparts rhythm, implies
> jollity, punctuates a song and provides a chorus which everyone
> can join in with.
>
-snip-
For what it's worth, OED also notes that "nonny-nonny" -- which, like
"nonny-no" is a meaningless refrain of obscure origin -- was "formerly
often used to cover indelicate allusions".
--
Cheers, Harvey
Canada for 30 years; S England since 1982.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van)
Michael DeBusk
<SpamOnl...@MiserableOldGit.Me.uk> wrote:
> It's a nonsense word with no particular meaning, but was typical of
> English folk songs of that era. It imparts rhythm, implies jollity,
> punctuates a song and provides a chorus which everyone can join in
> with.
I believe the term for it is, of all things, "burden".
--
Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place
Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet?
Raymond S. Wise
> On 06 Apr 2005, Stewart Hargrave wrote
>
> > On 6 Apr 2005 08:50:35 -0700, newb...@yahoo.com.tw (anonymous)
> > wrote:
> >
> >> lately i read about the poem "Sigh No More, Ladies..." (From
> >> "Much Ado about Nothing"). it aroused my question, i.e., what
> >> does the nonny mean here?
> >
> > It's a nonsense word with no particular meaning, but was typical
> > of English folk songs of that era. It imparts rhythm, implies
> > jollity, punctuates a song and provides a chorus which everyone
> > can join in with.
> >
> -snip-
>
> For what it's worth, OED also notes that "nonny-nonny" -- which, like
> "nonny-no" is a meaningless refrain of obscure origin -- was
"formerly
> often used to cover indelicate allusions".
*The Century Dictionary*'s take on it (and one which uses the term
"burden" mentioned by Michael DeBusk):
From
www.century-dictionary.com
[quote]
*nonny*1 [...], _n._ ; pl. _nonnies_ [...]. [An un-
meaning refrain repeating _nonny-nonny, nony-
nony, nonino,_ which was also used (like other
orig. unmeaning syllables) as a cover for in-
delicate allusions. Cf. _ninny._] *1[obsolete].* A meaning-
less burden in old English ballads and glees,
generally "hey, _nonny._" It was similar to the
_fa, la_ of madrigals.
They bore him barefaced on the bier ;
Hey non _nonny, nonny,_ hey _nonny._
_Shak.,_ Hamlet, iv. 5. 165.
*2.* A whim. [Prov. Eng.]
*nonny*2 [...], _n._ [Cf. _ninny._] A ninny ; a
simpleton.
[end quote]
Its definition for "ninny":
[quote]
*ninny* [...], _n._ ; pl. _ninnies_ [...]. [Prob. of
spontaneous origin, as a vaguely descriptive
term. Cf. It. _nino_ = Sp. _niño,_ a child, It.
_ninna, nanna,_ a lullaby.] A fool ; a simpleton.
What a pied _ninny_'s this! Thou scurvy patch !
_Shak.,_ Tempest, iii. 2. 71.
Some say, compar'd to Buononcini
That Mynheer Handel 's but a _ninny._
_Byrom,_ On the Feuds between Handel and Buononcini.
[end quote]
I was amused by the next entry in the Century:
[quote]
*ninny-broth[obsolete],* _n._ Coffee. [Slang.]
How to make coffee, alias _ninny-broth._
_Poor Robin_ (1696). (Nares.)
[end quote]
The 1913 *Webster's Revised and Unabridged Dictionary,* in its
etymology for "ninny," goes further back in the etymology of the
Italian term.
>From the entry for "ninny" at
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/WEBSTER.sh?WORD=ninny
[quote]
It. ninna, ninna nanna, lullably, prob. fr. ni, na, as used in singing
a child to sleep.
[end quote]
--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com
Robert Lieblich
>
> On Wed, 06 Apr 2005 17:31:46 +0100, Stewart Hargrave
> <SpamOnl...@MiserableOldGit.Me.uk> wrote:
>
> > It's a nonsense word with no particular meaning, but was typical of
> > English folk songs of that era. It imparts rhythm, implies jollity,
> > punctuates a song and provides a chorus which everyone can join in
> > with.
>
> I believe the term for it is, of all things, "burden".
Or "burthen."
Walt Kelly, creator of "Pogo", once launched into a series of strips
featuring a curly haired girl with no visible pupils in her eyes.
She also had a tiny little dog. The girl was named, for reasons I
have long since forgotten, "Hey Nonny," and the dog was named -- no
surprise -- "Arf." So the strip within a strip in which they
appeared was "Little Arf and Nonny."
I think Walt would reach farther for a bad pun than any other
practicing cartoonist.
--
Liebs
Michael DeBusk
<Robert....@Verizon.net> wrote:
> So the strip within a strip in which they
> appeared was "Little Arf and Nonny."
Oh, bravo... kudos to Mr. Kelly. :)
Matti Lamprhey
> Robert Lieblich <Robert....@Verizon.net> wrote:
>
> > So the strip within a strip in which they
> > appeared was "Little Arf and Nonny."
>
> Oh, bravo... kudos to Mr. Kelly. :)
Can someone please explain what I'm missing here, then?
Matti
Daniel James
> lately i read about the poem "Sigh No More, Ladies..." (From
> "Much Ado about Nothing"). it aroused my question, i.e., what
> does the nonny mean here?
Nonny -- and more particularly "Hey, nonny, nonny" (which has the
unusual distinction of being a well-known and recognized phrase
even though it is composed of nonsense words) -- is meaningless ...
but in the context of the song the suggestion is that "Hey, nonny,
nonny" is an exclamation of frivolity that might be made by the
ladies to whom the song is addressed once they have eschewed the
"sounds of woe" of the previous line.
Cheers,
Daniel.
--
..and don't say "tush", either! It's only a short step from "tush"
to "hey nonny nonny"; and then, I'm afraid, I'll shall have to call
the police.
-- Edmund Blackadder
Raymond S. Wise
"Matti Lamprhey" <ma...@official-totally-reversed.com> wrote in message
news:3bk7beF...@individual.net...
"Little Arf and Nonny" is a pun on the name of an actual (and, at one time,
quite popular) comic strip, "Little Orphan Annie." Annie was a cartoon
character with no visible pupils whose dog, Sandy--who also had no visible
pupils and who was a relatively large dog--barked by saying "Arf!"
A picture of them can be seen at
http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/gif%20annie.GIF
Raymond S. Wise
"Raymond S. Wise" <mplsra...@gbronline.com> wrote in message
news:n9qdnY21i_A...@gbronline.com...
A picture which shows even better the size of Sandy--and one in which,
moreover, the artist has Annie-ized Superman's eyes--can be seen at
http://theages.superman.ws/400/starr/starr-pinup.gif
Matti Lamprhey
> "Matti Lamprhey" <ma...@official-totally-reversed.com> wrote...
> > "Michael DeBusk" <m_de...@despammed.com> wrote...
> > > Robert Lieblich <Robert....@Verizon.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > > So the strip within a strip in which they
> > > > appeared was "Little Arf and Nonny."
> > >
> > > Oh, bravo... kudos to Mr. Kelly. :)
> >
> > Can someone please explain what I'm missing here, then?
>
>
> "Little Arf and Nonny" is a pun on the name of an actual (and, at one
> time, quite popular) comic strip, "Little Orphan Annie." Annie was a
> cartoon character with no visible pupils whose dog, Sandy--who also
> had no visible pupils and who was a relatively large dog--barked by
> saying "Arf!"
>
> A picture of them can be seen at
>
> http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/gif%20annie.GIF
Thanks, Ray -- I'd heard of Little Orphan Annie, but hadn't made that
connexion.
Matti
Bill McCray
In case no one else has answered, there was a long-running cartoon
strip called "Little Orphan Annie". A musical adaptation is titled
"Annie".
Bill
Swap first and last parts of username and ISP for address.
Robin Bignall
I missed the connection, too. In fact I don't think I've seen that
cartoon strip, and similar ones of Dick Tracy and L'll Abner, since
the war or just after. I was puzzling about how I ever came to see
them, since we in England never took American newspapers, and it came
to me that our food parcels must have had their contents wrapped up in
newspaper as padding.
--
wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire, England
meirman
<docr...@ntlworld.com> posted:
I still gdt auto parts from JCWhitney wrapped in Chicago newspapers,
and I enjoy reading them. Unfortunately, I seem to have gotten a lot
of Classified Ads lately.
s/ meirman
--
If you are emailing me please
say if you are posting the same response.
Born west of Pittsburgh Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis, 7 years
Chicago, 6 years
Brooklyn NY 12 years
now in Baltimore 22 years
bayskater
"Daniel James" <waste...@nospam.aaisp.org> wrote in message
news:VA.00000ad...@nospam.aaisp.org...
"Half a league, half a league, half a league on, with a hey nonny, nonny
and a hot cha-cha! "
P.G. Wodehouse
Fred
TakenEvent
"anonymous" <newb...@yahoo.com.tw> wrote in message
news:7be59b3a.05040...@posting.google.com...
The Violent Femmes turned an old poem like that into a song. It's called
"Hey Nonny Nonny", and can be found on their 1991 album "Why Do Birds Sing?"
According to the liner notes, the lyrics are based on the 16th century poem
"Colin", by The Shepard Tonie. The band made a few additions to the lyrics.
This usage seems to support Harvey's post about nonny covering "indelicate
allusions."
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/violent-femmes/hey-nonny-nonny.html
Beauty sat bathing by a spring where fairest shades did hide her
the winds blew calm the birds did sing the cool streams ran beside her
my wanton thoughts enticed mine eye to see what was forbidden
but better memory said "fie" so vain desire was chidden
hey nonny nonny oh hey nonny nonny
hey nonny nonny oh hey nonny nonnie
into a slumber then I fell when fond imagination
seemed to see but could not tell her feature or her fashion
but e'vn as babes in dreams do smile and sometimes fall a weeping
so I awaked as wise this while as when I fell a-sleeping
hey nonny nonny oh hey nonny nonny
hey nonny nonny oh hey nonny nonnie
say man are you down for doing something positive in the community?
no I don't think I'll ever do that again
well ain't you worried about doing the right thing?
well I don't care if I hey nonny nonny nonny ho nonny nonny nonny
MG
hank.a...@gmail.com
Colonel Edmund J. Burke
John Varela
ago you could probably look up the answer in the same place that you
found the question.
--
John Varela