Gormogons

Last updated

The Ancient Noble Order of the Gormogons was a short-lived 18th century secret society formed by expelled Freemason Philip Wharton. It left no records or accomplishments to indicate its true goal and purpose. From the group's few published articles it is thought that the society's primary objective was to hold up Freemasonry to ridicule. [1] During its brief existence it was accused of being a Jacobite-leaning group, [2] perhaps because the first known Grandmaster (or Oecumenical Volgi) was Andrew Michael Ramsay of Ayr, Scotland, a Jacobite of strong convictions. [3] It also appears to have been a charitable organization, at least according to its surviving bylaws. There are also some surviving pendant badges, bearing their sign. [4]

Contents

Possible etymology of the name

Jonathon Green suggests in Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang that, in the form gormagon, the word is a blend of gorgon and dragon, while the Oxford English Dictionary describes the etymology as "meaningless: pseudo Chinese." [5]

In The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, [6] the word gormagon was humorously defined thus: "A monster with six eyes, three mouths, four arms, eight legs, five on one side and three on the other, three arses, two tarses [penises], and a **** upon its back." The compiler Francis Grose gave the game away in his dictionary entry by explaining that it was "a man on horseback, with a woman behind him". [7] (His "five legs on one side" description could be merely that the woman was riding side-saddle).

One of the earliest references to the Gormogons was a September 3, 1724 entry in The London Post, which stated that it was founded by a certain Chin-Qua Ky-Po, who was claimed to be the first emperor of China, many thousand years before Adam. [8] In this entry, the order was said to have been brought to London by a "Mandarin", who in turn initiated several "Gentlemen of Honor" into its ranks. [9] Scholars offer differing accounts as to when this order became extinct. For instance, it was proposed that it ended in 1738. [9] Another account maintained that it survived until 1799, when an Act was passed in July 12th of that year suppressing all secret societies with the exemption of Freemasonry. [10]

The Gormogons have been referenced in the TV show Bones . Beginning with the season 3 premiere, "The Widow's Son in the Windshield", the Jeffersonian team investigated a cannibalistic serial killer they call Gormogon, for his obsession with secret societies and his targeting of the Knights of Columbus.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humpty Dumpty</span> Nursery rhyme character

Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth-century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott's National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs. Its origins are obscure, and several theories have been advanced to suggest original meanings.

Polari is a form of slang or cant used in Britain by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, sex workers and the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced back to at least the 19th century and possibly as far as the 16th century. There is a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppet performers, who traditionally used Polari to converse.

Pierce Egan (1772–1849) was a British journalist, sportswriter, and writer on popular culture. His popular book Life in London, published in 1821, was adapted into the stage play Tom and Jerry, or Life in London later that year, which became the first play to have a continuous run of 100 performances in London during its run at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dozen</span> Group of twelve items

A dozen is a grouping of twelve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh rarebit</span> British dish of cheese sauce on toast

Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit is a dish consisting of a hot cheese-based sauce served over slices of toasted bread. The original 18th-century name of the dish was the jocular "Welsh rabbit", which was later reinterpreted as "rarebit", as the dish contains no rabbit. Variants include English rabbit, Scotch rabbit, buck rabbit, golden buck, and blushing bunny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swag (bedroll)</span> Portable sleeping unit

In Australia, a swag is a portable sleeping unit. It is normally a bundle of belongings rolled in a traditional fashion to be carried by a foot traveller in the bush. Before motor transport was common, foot travel over long distances was essential to agriculture in the Australian bush. It is sometimes referred to as a "backpack bed". Swags have been carried by shearers, miners, the unemployed, and many others, some of whom would have been happy to have been called swagmen and some not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Davy Jones's locker</span> Sailor legend

Davy Jones's locker is a metaphor for the oceanic abyss, the final resting place of drowned sailors and travellers. It is a euphemism for drowning or shipwrecks in which the sailors' and ships' remains are consigned to the depths of the ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Grose</span> English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer (c. 1831 – 1891)

Francis Grose was an English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He produced A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785) and A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of Local Proverbs, and Popular Superstitions (1787).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thieves' cant</span> Cant used by various peoples in English-speaking countries

Thieves' cant is a cant, cryptolect, or argot which was formerly used by thieves, beggars, and hustlers of various kinds in Great Britain and to a lesser extent in other English-speaking countries. It is now mostly obsolete and used in literature and fantasy role-playing, although individual terms continue to be used in the criminal subcultures of Britain and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gropecunt Lane</span> Street name in England in the Middle Ages

Gropecunt Lane was a street name found in English towns and cities during the Middle Ages, believed to be a reference to the prostitution centred on those areas; it was normal practice for a medieval street name to reflect the street's function or the economic activity taking place within it. Gropecunt, the earliest known use of which is in about 1230, appears to have been derived as a compound of the words grope and cunt. Streets with that name were often in the busiest parts of medieval towns and cities, and at least one appears to have been an important thoroughfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snap-dragon (game)</span> Game involving grabbing fruit out of burning brandy

Snap-dragon was a parlour game popular from about the 16th century. It was played during the winter, particularly on Christmas Eve. Brandy was heated and placed in a wide shallow bowl; raisins were placed in the brandy which was then set alight. Typically, lights were extinguished or dimmed to increase the eerie effect of the blue flames playing across the liquor. The game is described in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) as "a play in which they catch raisins out of burning brandy and, extinguishing them by closing the mouth, eat them". According to an article in Richard Steele's Tatler magazine, "the wantonness of the thing was to see each other look like a demon, as we burnt ourselves, and snatched out the fruit". Snap-dragon was played in England, Canada, and the United States, but there is insufficient evidence of the practice in Scotland or other countries.

A slang dictionary is a reference book containing an alphabetical list of slang, which is vernacular vocabulary not generally acceptable in formal usage, usually including information given for each word, including meaning, pronunciation, and etymology. It can provide definitions on a range of slang from more mundane terms to obscure sexual practices. Such works also can include words and phrases arising from different dialects and argots, which may or may not have passed into more common usage. They can also track the changing meaning of the terms over time and space, as they migrate and mutate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Premier Grand Lodge of England</span> Masonic Grand Lodge in London, England (1717-1813)

The organisation now known as the Premier Grand Lodge of England was founded on 24 June 1717 as the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster. Originally concerned with the practice of Freemasonry in London and Westminster, it soon became known as the Grand Lodge of England. Because it was the first Masonic Grand Lodge to be created, modern convention now calls it the Premier Grand Lodge of England in order to distinguish it from the Most Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons according to the Old Constitutions, usually referred to as the Ancient Grand Lodge of England, and the Grand Lodge of All England Meeting at York. It existed until 1813, when it united with the Ancient Grand Lodge of England to create the United Grand Lodge of England.

To send someone to Coventry is an idiom used in England meaning to deliberately ostracise someone. Typically, this is done by not talking to them, avoiding their company, and acting as if they no longer exist. In essence, and by modern parlance, to ‘blank’ someone. Coventry is a cathedral city historically in Warwickshire.

<i>A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew</i> English slang dictionary, c. 1698

A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew is a dictionary of English cant and slang by a compiler known only by the initials B. E., first published in London c. 1698. With over 4,000 entries, it was the most extensive dictionary of non-standard English in its time, until it was superseded in 1785 by Francis Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. B. E.'s New Dictionary was used as a source by many subsequent dictionaries.

A choke pear or chocky-pear is an astringent fruit. The term is used for the fruit of any variety of pear which has an astringent taste and is difficult to swallow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pear of anguish</span> Alleged early modern torture device

The pear of anguish, also known as choke pear or mouth pear, is a torture device based on mechanisms of unknown use from the early modern period. The mechanism consists of a pear-shaped metal body divided into spoon-like segments that can be spread apart with a spring or by turning a key. Its proposed functionality as a torture device is to be variously inserted into the mouth, rectum, or vagina, and then expanded to gag or mutilate the victim.

Cock ale, popular in 17th and 18th-century England, was an ale whose recipe consisted of normal ale brewed inside a container, to which was later added a bag stuffed with a parboiled, skinned and gutted cock, and various fruits and spices.

A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words is a dictionary of slang originally compiled by publisher and lexicographer John Camden Hotten in 1859.

Prick is a vulgar word for penis as well as a pejorative term used to refer to a despicable or contemptible individual. It is generally considered offensive, though in the past it has been used as a term of endearment. Its history as a euphemism for penis goes back to the 1500s and has been used in wordplay by Shakespeare and other writers who have combined the vulgarism with the standard meaning of the noun, which means the act of piercing or puncturing. Most linguists believe it has only been used as a direct insult since 1929.

References

  1. ↑ Antient Noble Order of the Gormogons
  2. ↑ Lyttle, Charles H. "Historical Bases of Rome's Conflict with Freemasonry", Church History, Vol. 9, No. 1. (Mar., 1940), pp. 3–23.
  3. ↑ Carr. J. L. "Gorgons, Gormogons, Medusists and Masons". The Modern Language Review. Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1963), pp. 73–78.
  4. ↑ Sotheby's October 1974 catalogue, reproduced in The Burlington Magazine , vol. 116, No. 858 (Sep., 1974), pp. i–lx.
  5. ↑ "gormagon", OED Online (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, retrieved 26 March 2009.
  6. ↑ Francis Grose (1994), The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: Buckish Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence, London: Senate, ISBN   1-85958-045-9 , a facsimile reprint of Captain [Francis] Grose, comp. (1811), Lexicon balatronicum, London: Printed for C. Chappel.
  7. ↑ See Captain [Francis] Grose; Juliet Sutherland [et al.], eds. (April 2004), 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [EBook #5402], Salt Lake City, Ut.: Project Gutenberg , retrieved 26 March 2009{{citation}}: |author2= has generic name (help).
  8. ↑ Zagami, Leo Lyon (2017). Confessions of an Illuminati, VOLUME III: Espionage, Templars and Satanism in the Shadows of the Vatican. San Francisco, CA: CCC Publishing. p. 176. ISBN   9781888729665.
  9. 1 2 Redfern, Nick (2017-03-14). Secret Societies: The Complete Guide to Histories, Rites, and Rituals. Visible Ink Press. ISBN   9781578596461.
  10. ↑ Ward, J. M. S.; Stirling, W. G. (2006). The Triads. Oxon: Routledge. p. 126. ISBN   9780710312044.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.