[ANSTHRLD] A Bardic Thistle?

[Tim McDaniel]

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006, Sweet, Debby <deborah.s.sweet at okstate.edu> wrote:
> Do you really use "barding" to describe singing/music/etc
> entertainment?

A fair number of SCA people do use "barding" as a gerund based on "to
bard".  ("Verbing weirds language.")  I suspect it's because imitating
a bard was popular in the SCA for many years before equestrian
activities became popular.

> Because barding is what a horse wears.

Yeah.  I tried (in a desultory way) to convince Robin of Gilwell to
host a barding competition.  It would teach a lession, but I suspect
the disappointed performers would reply with unprintable comments
concerning Robin vis a vis horses.

See also "garb".  Unfortunately, while you can usually substitute
"bardic" or "bard" for "barding", I don't know of anything easier than
"medieval clothing" to substitute for "garb".  (I don't have an OED
handy, but I dimly recall "garb" meaning "clothing" being 19th C or
so.)

Danielis de Lincolino
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com