It occurred to me that I haven't written anything surreal and nonsensical for much too long, but I don't seem to be in quite the right mood. I just started writing something about a spy, but it wasn't even remotely funny, so I abandoned it. Instead, I'll hope I haven't done so already and talk about the fact that the Brazilian TV people all thought my name was Pridemore instead of Pridmore. This happens to me a lot, and not just with Brazilians. Admittedly, Pridemore sounds more like it should be a name than Pridmore does, but that's not the point. The Pridmore family has a long and distinguished history, probably, and just because nobody with the surname has ever become world-famous doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it.
The name Pridmore seems to have confounded all those people who compile books of surname meanings. Most of them omit it altogether, and even the most exhaustive websites can only speculate that it probably started out as a place-name, although nobody knows where the original prid-more might have been. Perhaps one of my ancestors just decided to make up the name by stringing random letters together. There's a proud tradition of illiteracy in the family, so maybe someone called Pridemore just forgot how to spell their name one day and it stuck.
It's an anagram of Ripe Dorm. Or More Drip. Or 'orrid MEP.
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