ANST - Smalls

[I. Marc Carlson]

>> As any red blooded Englishman knows, "smalls" are your underwear, not
>>children....

If I may quote from an article in our local newsletter from last year:

Berengaria Ravencroft. "The Plain FAQS". _Nordic Saga_ (Nov. 1998)

""Smalls" (also "Halflings") refers to children. Now it seems that this term is
a serious point of contention since a myth has sprung up that the term "Smalls"
is a contraction of "Small clothes" and so we are referring to our children as
underwear. Now it is entirely true that "Smalls" is derived from "Smallclothes"
and does mean "underwear" - but not until well into the 17th century. "Small"
in the Middle Ages still referred to something that was inferior. "Halfling",
it seems, also referred to children after 1794, and meant a stripling or
something not fully grown. Some terms that were used in the Middle Ages are
Arfname ("Heir", from Erf, cattle as inheritance, from the 10th through the
13th centuries), Congeon (a dwarf or halfwit, especially as applied to a child,
from the 12th to the 15th centuries), Faunt (related to Infant, 14th century),
Girl (referring to a child of either gender, from the 13th to the 15th
centuries), Imp (a child, the term only became derogatory in the 1500s, from
the 1300s on), and Minion (which can mean a Child, in the 1500s). To be sure,
these aren't the only terms that were used. Child and Children were popular
too. 

Not to get into a lengthy discussion about the other "SCAdian Jargon" terms
that some people don't care for, these include: 
Farspeaker = Telephone 
Garb = Clothing 
Autocrat = Person in charge of events ("Stewards", "Wardens") 
Troll = Gate guards, or the toll takers 
Newbie = A newcomer ("Comeling", "New Person") 
Dragon, Fire Chariot = Automobile ("Vehicle", "Van", "Car", "Conveyance") 
Mundane = Someone not affiliated with the SCA. 

Sources: 
Dictionary of Early English. 
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition."

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