Woody's Worries

Ruth Wood wonders if she’ll ever be cut out for a life of splendid French isolation.

- Ruth Wood

Bumpkin is such a pleasing word – though it only ever seems to be paired with ‘country’ just as only tones are dulcet, knees are bended and imaginations have figments.

I’d always assumed the word was coined by a poet who wanted to write witty couplets about pumpkins because ‘pumpkin’ is another satisfying word and has comic overtones whereas, say, ‘orange’ is not very amusing, which is presumably why it doesn’t rhyme with anything.

But while mulling over the idea of retiring one day to the French countryside, I’ve discovered that the word ‘bumpkin’ probably comes from the Middle Dutch bommekijn, meaning ‘little barrel’, the inference being that country dwellers are short, dumpy folk.