Today's word: G. H. (n.) old news.

According to the Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant (1889), the letters G.H. made their way into the (then) vernacular as follows:

These initial letters owe their origin to a certain Mr George Horne, a typographer, who was in the habit of retailing stale news. If a workman repeats a story already known, an intimation to hold his tongue is conveyed by uttering the ominous letters 'G. H.'

This very short acrostic states a simple truth which is as old (and obvious) as humanity itself. Unfortunately, some think otherwise, in my view to our detriment.

My much-treasured Christmas present for 2017 is a book by Paul Anthony Jones: "The cabinet of linguistic curiosities". Each page contains a descriptive story about some obscure or archaic word. It occurred to me it would be a fun exercise to try and write, each day, a poem featuring the "word of the day" from the book.

Thanks for reading.

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