[Loch-Ruadh] Word of the Day, April 18

[Cait O'Hara]

Wall lecture

Candidates for a degree at this period [c.1660] were required to give six lectures on natural philosophy, called wall lectures because, as a rule, only the four walls were there to hear.
-- Morris Marples’s University Slang, 1950

Lecture Thursday
Used in New England for a holiday, from the custom of excusing boys from going to school on those week-days when there was a public lecture.
-- John Pickering’s Vocabulary of the United States, 1816

The appointed day for the periodical lecture of the municipality or parish.  In New England colonies, it seems to have been usually Thursday.
-- William Whitney’s Century Dictionary, 1889

All constables may and shall, from time to time, duely make search throughout the limits of their townes upon Lord’s dayes and lecture-days in times of exercise … for all offenders against this law.
-- Massachusetts Colony Laws, 1660




---
Never meddle in the affairs of dragons;
For you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
-- Acacia




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