Musings from the Merse
Monday, July 02, 2007
FUFFET AND SEE?
A friend travelling on the A68 between Dalkeith and Soutra saw an official Road sign which said 'Beware, Fuffets ahead' Fuffets? What's those? And nothing was there to be seen.But as she did not know what a Fuffet is it was qute hard to know what to look out for. She may have squashed a few without realising. Conundrum as our councillor would have it. She rang up Amey Highways who denied working on that part of the road and had no idea what a Fuffet might be.
Huttonian and the Hutton Think Tank (Words and Phrases section)have assiduously searched online, offline and in my lady's chamber for a Fuffet. Someone suggested it might be a Scottish word but not known to the Scottish English online dictionaty. At last a Japanese website www.ohahaabanahajaiargh.org (transliteration approximate but also visible on http://edu.qd.sd.cn/audition/disney/third/txt/With%20Apologies%20to%20Mother%20Goose.txt) came upwith the only known reference to Fuffets in a previously unpublished piece of deathless verse-and as you will see-not too helpful
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Then he had a terrible fall.
An¡¯all the king¡¯s horses an¡¯all the king¡¯s men had
Scrambled eggs for breakfast again!
But oh, no no, don¡¯t say I told you.
Don¡¯t go quotin¡¯ me¡¯ cause if you do, OI Mother Goose.
Will be awful mad at me.
Hey little Boy Blue come blow your horn.
The sheep¡¯s in the meadow and the cow¡¯s in the corn.
Now where is that boy that watches the sheep?
He¡¯s out pickin¡¯ flowers with little Bo peep!
Little Miss Muffet, she sat on a fuffet.
That¡¯s kind of hard to do.
Cause I looked it up and there¡¯s no such word.
I think that¡¯s strange, don¡¯t you?
But if she finds out what I said, I ask you, please.
Kindly send along my apologies to Mother Goose!
So it could be a sort of obtrusion-and in the case of the A68 a mini speed bump? But too mini to be noticeable. Or it might be a small toad like creature with a thoughtfully arranged crossing place as they provide for frogs on- the- hop in Maidenhead.
Research continues.
Any Fuffets sent to the HTT for analysis and classifiction will be well treated and carefully returned.
PS a Welsh bloggee has found the following:
Heddiw, cynhaliwyd buffet (fuffet? :)) nadolig. Gallet ti'n ymlacio, Telsa, fydd ddim rhaid i ti wneud dim byd! Hmm. O, mae angen fwy o llwyiau Gallet ti'n ...
www.linux.org.Enjoy
A friend travelling on the A68 between Dalkeith and Soutra saw an official Road sign which said 'Beware, Fuffets ahead' Fuffets? What's those? And nothing was there to be seen.But as she did not know what a Fuffet is it was qute hard to know what to look out for. She may have squashed a few without realising. Conundrum as our councillor would have it. She rang up Amey Highways who denied working on that part of the road and had no idea what a Fuffet might be.
Huttonian and the Hutton Think Tank (Words and Phrases section)have assiduously searched online, offline and in my lady's chamber for a Fuffet. Someone suggested it might be a Scottish word but not known to the Scottish English online dictionaty. At last a Japanese website www.ohahaabanahajaiargh.org (transliteration approximate but also visible on http://edu.qd.sd.cn/audition/disney/third/txt/With%20Apologies%20to%20Mother%20Goose.txt) came upwith the only known reference to Fuffets in a previously unpublished piece of deathless verse-and as you will see-not too helpful
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Then he had a terrible fall.
An¡¯all the king¡¯s horses an¡¯all the king¡¯s men had
Scrambled eggs for breakfast again!
But oh, no no, don¡¯t say I told you.
Don¡¯t go quotin¡¯ me¡¯ cause if you do, OI Mother Goose.
Will be awful mad at me.
Hey little Boy Blue come blow your horn.
The sheep¡¯s in the meadow and the cow¡¯s in the corn.
Now where is that boy that watches the sheep?
He¡¯s out pickin¡¯ flowers with little Bo peep!
Little Miss Muffet, she sat on a fuffet.
That¡¯s kind of hard to do.
Cause I looked it up and there¡¯s no such word.
I think that¡¯s strange, don¡¯t you?
But if she finds out what I said, I ask you, please.
Kindly send along my apologies to Mother Goose!
So it could be a sort of obtrusion-and in the case of the A68 a mini speed bump? But too mini to be noticeable. Or it might be a small toad like creature with a thoughtfully arranged crossing place as they provide for frogs on- the- hop in Maidenhead.
Research continues.
Any Fuffets sent to the HTT for analysis and classifiction will be well treated and carefully returned.
PS a Welsh bloggee has found the following:
Heddiw, cynhaliwyd buffet (fuffet? :)) nadolig. Gallet ti'n ymlacio, Telsa, fydd ddim rhaid i ti wneud dim byd! Hmm. O, mae angen fwy o llwyiau Gallet ti'n ...
www.linux.org.Enjoy
Labels: Conundrum, Fuffet, Hutton Think Tank
Comments:
Bonjour M le 'uttonian
Ze word "fuffet" is a word french which mean a buffet cold.
Zerefor eef you see the sign of warning zen you will find French caravaneurs seeting at their tables of picnic in ze road eating frogs and snails cold and very tasty!
Bon appetit!
Ze word "fuffet" is a word french which mean a buffet cold.
Zerefor eef you see the sign of warning zen you will find French caravaneurs seeting at their tables of picnic in ze road eating frogs and snails cold and very tasty!
Bon appetit!
# posted by 
: 12:37 PM
: 12:37 PM
Could the sign have been vandalised, having originally read 'puppets' or even 'muppets'? Still unlikely, I know.
# posted by : 11:02 AM
: 11:02 AM
All is possible. The sign is still there so it must mean something. 'Muffits' could refer to the fielding of the Scottish Cricket team but then fluffits would be better.
Sadly it's a much more boring explanation.... The sign reads (or maybe originally read) "Fuffet's Road closed ahead, follow diversion". Given Fuffet's Road leads from the A68 to the A6124 (length about 120 yards) and the diversion is via the A68 & A6124 (length about 250 yards) it's not exactly onerous.
Ah. But a mystery remains (a) the sign may have been amended by kind people to remove 'road closed'and apostrophe of Fuffet's removed. But presumably Fuffet's Road is named after a Fuffet. So what is or who was Fuffet? Obviously of little importance if it is of suchj short length. I suspect Fuffet (Callum Fuffet) may well have been an early SNP politician in the Borders -hence the total blank.
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