"Writes Lloyd Evans, in "Three cheers for booing in the theatre" (Spectator).The oldest meaning of the verb "boo" — going back to the 1500s — is "To low or bellow as a cow does" (OED): "The ungodlye colleges of priestes..that dayly boo and rore the holye scriptures" (a1555).The familiar meaning, to make the sound "boo" to express disapproval or contempt, goes back only to the early 19th century: "The whole school raised… [read post]

And bid us go to Portsmouth our frigot to make claim And there we was to be paid off and so to the seas again There’s fifteen girls at Scarborough and five and forty more We left with child at Portsmouth and that makes just three score It’s all you girls at Portsmouth we bid you all fairwell, For we are bound for a long voige but where we cannot tell And all you girls at Scarborough we bid you all adieu When the Marsmaid sails to the norward again beware of Coxon’s crew… [read post]