LINGUIST List 10.1861

Thu Dec 2 1999

Qs: African Languages, Origin of Phrase

Editor for this issue: James Yuells <jameslinguistlist.org>



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  • AWodecki, African Languages audio and video clips
  • Simon Cauchi, Origin of phrase "small, but perfectly formed"

    Message 1: African Languages audio and video clips

     Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 17:54:50 -0600
    From: AWodecki <AWodeckieb.com>
    Subject: African Languages audio and video clips


    Encyclopaedia Britannica is currently working on online "The World Voices" project. I'm searching to locate the best source for audio and possibly video clips (Films?) of the African languages listed below and would appreciate any input where to submit my request.

    The languages we would like to have illustrated by possibly film clips, are listed below: Niger-Congo languages (also Banda?) Fula [Fuuta Jaalon] Ijo Asante Yoruba Zulu Rwanda Shona Xhosa Swahili Wolof Igbo (?) Nilo-Saharan Songhai Kanuri Dinka Luo Kalenjin Masai Thank you kindly for your time, Waiting to hear from you, Sincerely, Anna Wodecki Art Department-Photo editor Encyclopaedia Britannica Phone: (312) 347-7113 310 South Michigan Ave. Fax: (312) 294-2191 Chicago, Illinois 60604 e-mail: awodeckieb.com <mailto:awodeckieb.com>

    Message 2: Origin of phrase "small, but perfectly formed"

     Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 15:44:41 +1300
    From: Simon Cauchi <cauchiwave.co.nz>
    Subject: Origin of phrase "small, but perfectly formed"


    On another list (Copyediting-l) this question was asked:

    >Does anyone know the origin of, or who first used, the phrase "small, but >perfectly formed"?

    The earliest use I can find of the phrase is in a letter written by Duff Cooper to his future wife Lady Diana Manners in October 1914:

    "I really did enjoy Belvoir you know ... You must I think have enjoyed it too, with your two stout lovers frowning at one another across the hearth rug, while your small, but perfectly formed one kept the party in a roar."

    This quotation is included in the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, where the cited source is Artemis Cooper (ed.), A Durable Fire: The Letters of Duff Cooper and Lady Diana Cooper (1983), p. 17 -- a work I have not yet been able to consult.

    However, I suspect that Duff Cooper did not invent the phrase but was alluding to the idea of the "pocket Venus" (or perhaps, if the lover in question was a man, a pocket Adonis, to coin a phrase). That, at any rate, is the conclusion I draw from the quotations in the OED for "pocket Venus":

    1869 S. R. Hole Bk. about Roses viii. 125 The lovely little Banksian Rose..this pocket, or rather button-hole, Venus. 1921 W. de la Mare Memoirs of Midget xxxiii. 229 Aunt Alice calls you her 'pocket Venus', and she means it, too, in her own sly way. 1969 H. K. Fleming Day they kidnapped Queen Victoria vi. 106 Four years had gone by, since, as the 'Pocket Venus', she had been the rage and toast of society. 1979 'P. O'Connor' Into Strong City ii. xxvii. 98 Nancy was dark and petite, perfectly formed---the proverbial pocket venus.

    I have had no success in getting hold of any of these books, but I think the 1969 Fleming quotation almost certainly refers to Lady Florence Paget, a petite beauty who in 1864 eloped with the Marquis of Hastings when she was engaged to be married to someone else. Presumably the 1869 Hole quotation alludes to that recent high society scandal. Although only the 1979 'O'Connor' quotation brings the two ideas together, I still think Duff Cooper's phrase probably alludes to the idea of a pocket Venus.

    But does anyone know of an earlier use of the phrase "small, but perfectly formed" than Duff Cooper's, or of any other explanation of its origin? The question has long been puzzling me, even before my curiosity was rekindled by the query in Copyediting-l.

    If anyone responds, I'd be very grateful if you would send a copy of your reply directly to me, as well as to the Linguist list.

    Simon Cauchi, Hamilton, New Zealand <cauchiwave.co.nz>