Flyting
I picked up a word I didn't know from a Pharyngula commenter.
From Merriam-Webster:
flyting: a dispute or exchange of personal abuse in verse form.
From Wikipedia:
In Norse and Germanic cultures, flyting is a contest of insults, either as a prelude to battle or as a form of combat in its own right. The exchange is regular, if not ritualized, and the insults usually center on accusations of cowardice or sexual impropriety or perversion.
I like the word. It reminds me of old limerick battles.
Comments
Gabe Kaplan had a comedy routine about ranking called Holes and Mellow Rolls, as in up your hole with a mellow role. In MP & The Holy Grail, remember the French guy yelling insults down from the castle: "I fart in your general direction." Now to see an insult contest, you have to watch wrestling on TV, something I refuse to do.
I guess you never taught junior high or high school. This goes on all the time there. I just didn't know it had a name.
GREGORY
I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as
they list.
SAMPSON
Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them;
which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.
ABRAHAM
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? (1.1.44)
SAMPSON
I do bite my thumb, sir. (1.1.45)
ABRAHAM
Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? (1.1.46)
SAMPSON
[Aside to GREGORY ] Is the law of our side, if I say
ay? (1.1.48)
GREGORY
No.
SAMPSON
No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I
bite my thumb, sir.
GREGORY
Do you quarrel, sir?
ABRAHAM
Quarrel sir! no, sir.
http://www.clicknotes.com/romeo/T11.html
Come, flyte with me--come flyte, come flyte! (You know, like that song from the United Airlines commercials, except with an awful pun in.)
I like this word too. It reminds me of our packbawky verse-fight. Come to think of it, I haven't cast any aspersions at the nit-winged set just lately. One will have to remedy that situation.
jk,
I vaguely remember Sigga telling me about Icelanders who could verbally spar in verse with both rhyme and structured alliteration. That would be impressive to observe. Even though I wouldn't understand it, I think it would still beat watching wrestling on TV.
Charlie,
I've never taught junior high or high school. There are many times when I've wished that the erudition of my high-school companions had been a few notches higher. Forget Shakespeare; the pinnacle of intellectual pursuits was learning how to swear in as many different languages as possible.
Socar,
I saw another word a couple of days ago that reminded me of your (completely unwarranted) packbawky abuse. The word was Turdus, a genus of singing birds including the true thrushes.
Upon the dock at four o'clock one bird accosts another:
"There's time to fly up in the sky, but not to call your mother?"
http://www.rattysghost.com/birdfight.avi
Said Mrs Rat, "This tiny flat we've patently outgrown,
And more's the space we could embrace if each would eat their own."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat