[Loch-Ruadh] Word of the Day, Feb. 22

[Sonja Crocker]

rigmutton

A wanton wench that is ready to ride upon men's backs, or else passively to be their rompstall.  The word mutton, when applied to a woman, whether alone or part of a compound epithet, seems always to have been opprobrious, [as in] Shakespeare's Tow Gentlemen of Verona:  "Ay, sir, I , a lost mutton gave your letter to her, a laced mutton, and she, a laced mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing for my labour." [From] rig, rigging, ready to bestride any inactive stallion, and give him a quickening spur.
--Federick Elworthy's Devonshire Glossary, 1879

Feast Day of St. Margaret of Cortone, a patroness of "fallen women."

Washington's Birthday