Talk:Nosegay

Use of "tussie-mussie" in Victorian era

FYI

 – Section heading added by Undead Shambles (talk) 23:13, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

I have doubts about any claim that the "tussie-mussie" was popular during the Victorian era. "Nosegays" may have been, but OED has no 19th-century citations for "tussie-mussie" in this sense at all--they enter the word as "tuzzy-muzzy," by the way, and suggest that the term was revived in the 20th century, presumably after falling into disuse around the beginning of the 18th century.

A search on Google Books, limiting results to publication dates 1800 to 1900, turns up only a couple of lexicons listing "tussie-mussie" as a synonym for "nosegay"; it gives no actual references to people giving each other "tussie-mussies." Doing the same search for "nosegay" turns up over 800 hits.

65.213.77.129 (talk) 18:32, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Posy

I find it pretty difficult to accept what this article purports: that posy is not a type of flower, but a bouquet of flowers. How could you have a 'pocketful' of bouquets? Homer offered Marge 'a bouquet of posies.' — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.206.153 (talk) 02:24, 17 June 2016 (UTC)

Well, it could be that it isn't using the modern meaning of pocket, but rather the older meaning which was "a bag or sack," or it could even be a flower pocket which is a fist-sized hole in a wood post or stone pedestal in which a bundle of flowers were put as part of some pagan religious rituals, or used in homes for scenting (much like a vase of flowers serves today, except for decoration instead of smell). — al-Shimoni (talk) 12:11, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

etymology

http://www.word-detective.com/0806B.html#tussymussy

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tus1.htm --Espoo (talk) 07:15, 25 December 2019 (UTC)