#mateloge

[meridianrose]

The major issues with the song “Gay Pirates” by Cosmo Jarvis are twofold, somewhat intertwined, and as follows: 1. gratuitous torture porn, and 2. historical inaccuracy.

Given the title of the song, we can assume that all the events take place aboard a pirate ship. So why does the pirate captain care so very much about who’s buggering who aboard his ship?

For everyone going “but wait! sodomy was illegal! that’s why he hated them!”, I would like to take a moment to remind you that THEY. ARE. PIRATES. Pirates don’t care about the law. That’s why they’re pirates.

Knowing that, we can expect pirates would probably be fairly indifferent towards two crewmen getting their mack on. But the aforementioned cursory Google search reveals something more: a little term called “matelotage.”

Matelotage is a lifelong male/male partnership practiced among Tortugan buccaneers; the participants in such a partnership are called matelots. According to Wikipedia,

Matelots shared their beds, property, food, and loot with one another. The extent to which matelotage included homosexuality is controversial. Although a few historians have claimed, with no evidence, that homosexuality was universal among the buccaneers, it is recognized by most that matelots shared women as well as their chattels, and that buccaneers were frequent and enthusiastic patrons of female prostitutes. It is nevertheless agreed that a substantial minority of buccaneer matelots were likely homosexual.

tl;dr – It looks a lot like what Queequeg and Ishmael get up to in Moby-Dick.

In short, not only do pirates have no reason to hate sodomy outright, but they even have a marriage-like system in place for male partnerships that, in some cases, involved a romantic relationship.

[itslmdee]

Words and Phrases (March 2017)

Something all writers love is words, and we delight in finding the right turn of phrase to express ourselves. As a reader, I also enjoy discovering new words and concepts whether it’s from a published work, an indie short story, a fanfiction, something I heard on a TV show, or a word discovered in a news article. This is a list of some of the things I’ve learnt over the past months.

Anecdoche – A neologism from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows which describes it as “a conversation in which everyone is talking but nobody is listening”

Avocation – as opposed to a vocation, something you do for enjoyment, such as a hobby, or a secondary occuption

Avulse – to remove or take away forcibly

Balbutiate – to stammer

Bicameral – (of a legislative body) having two chambers “Westworld” recently had an episode titled The Bicameral Mind, after a psychological hypothesis known as bicameralism

Cafuné. – a borrowing from Brazilian Portuguese meaning to run one’s fingers through a lover’s hair

Digitigrade – an animal such as a cat or dog that walks on its toes (digits) without the heels touching the ground

Egregore – from the Greek word meaning watching, it has come to mean a collective group mind

Factotum – handyman, household servant with many duties, employer with varied duties, jack of all trades

Froward – not to be confused with forward. Someone who is difficult to deal with, a contrary person

Mateloge – Discussions around Starz TV show “Black Sails” have brought renewed interest to the term Matelotage, which was a civil partnership between two male pirates

Mondaine – of fashionable society, wordly, also can refer to a fashionable woman

Orbuculum – another name for a crystal ball

Precariat – a social class of people living without predictability or job security and often in severe deprivation – read more

Stillicide – nothing to with killing despite the cide suffix, this refers to a continual dripping. In Scottish Law, the right of a householder to allow rainwater from their roof to drip onto a neighbour’s premises.

Sumptuary laws – laws intended to restrict and reduce consumption and extravagance especially in terms of dress, luxury items, and household goods, and meant to uphold religious beliefs and morals as well as class division

Troposphere – the lowest of the five levels of the earth’s atmosphere reaching from the ground to as high as 12 miles above sea level in places . The stratosphere is above the troposphere.