September 28, 2016

"'I don't see that I deserve to be put upon and stormed at for nothing!' concluded the small woman, bigly."

A quote from Thomas Hardy's "Far From the Madding Crowd," discovered just now as I — participating in this Facebook discussion — looked up "bigly" in the Oxford English dictionary.

concluded the small woman, bigly... that cracks me up.

21 comments:

rhhardin said...

Hit me with your midpoint, she said meanly.

- computer generated Tom Swifty

Nonapod said...

The Songify guys have put up their interpretation of the debate. Still waiting on Bad Lip Reading's interpretation.

traditionalguy said...

A woman bigger than 5 feet tall and 100 lbs is more woman than is necessary. The small ones are the aggressive ones.

ALP said...

I am the living embodiment of this quote. A shade under 5' and hell on wheels. From time to time, I'll catch a reflection of myself among friends/co-workers. My small size, relatively speaking, always surprises me. "How can I be this small - I don't feel like it?"

Tiny women can employ their lack of size in one of two ways: make sure you have a protective man by your side at all times, or cop a "terrier" attitude that lets everyone know: I may be small but don't underestimate. I've used both, depending on the situation.

Wilbur said...

"The small ones are the aggressive ones."

Just like our canine friends.

Several decades ago, I knew a lay-about - who was in a position to hold forth on the subject - who would state as a scientific fact "Little woman - big pussy. Big woman - little pussy".

He regarded the science as settled.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Wilbur, no. Just no. Or rather, YMMV so very, er, widely.

tcrosse said...

The Navy version was "Big woman - big pussy. Little woman - all pussy".

Bilwick said...

It's from Hardy's little known but prophetic first novel, "Hillary of the Clintonvilles."

Bill said...

I love Hardy's poetry. Here's the first stanza of "The Convergence of the Twain", about the fate of the Titanic:

In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.

effinayright said...

Althouse, your report on "bigly" embiggens us all.

gadfly said...

John Podhoretz beat you to "bigly." For those who can get by the Commentary Magazine paywall, here is their 9/27/16 podcast entitled "He Blew It Bigley."

It is an educational and enjoyable listen here.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Truly, madly, bigly.

Rosalyn C. said...

NYC -- The Big Apple, etc. New Yorkers always see themselves as the Big League. Never ever occurred to me that Trump said, "bigly." LOL

John henry said...

Awww...

I thought that this was gonna be about the bigly Miss Universe. I looked at her photos and she really was "bigly". Not just a little overweight but like La Blimpa.

She really pissed me off last night on Anderson Cooper. She became an American Citizen a few years back but says that "my country" is Venezuela. Not the US where she is a citizen, but Venezuela. If she feels that way, she should be sent back.

She had a very interesting non-denial about threatening to kill a Venezuelan judge. Basically "That was 20 years ago, I am no saint and Trump should never have said I was fat. Even though I was."

Quote very approximate.

John Henry

Bad Lieutenant said...

Trump admonished a key employee for non performance. If women were equal to men, this would not be an issue.

Darrell said...

Trump fought off the others to let her keep her title after she gained sixty pounds. He held press conferences defending her for stress eating. Hillary gets a Venezuelan fan of Papa Chavez to betray Trump's goodness toward her and idiots think it's a story.

gspencer said...


"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" - Jebediah Springfield

Edna Krabappel: "Embiggens"? I never heard that word before I came to Springfield.

Miss Hoover: I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Matt Sablan said...

When I heard it, I thought he said "Big League." It wasn't until after the debate I realized I misheard.

Bad Lieutenant said...

He IS saying big league.

Ann Althouse said...

"John Podhoretz beat you to "bigly." "

Huh? It's totally last year. My point is that anyone still talking about it must be joking or a damned fool. That's the discussion at Facebook, where John links to a Slate article form last November (which clears it up easily).

Birches said...

Embiggens. Heh.

2016 really is The Simpsons election.

I made a shirt that says, "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos."