Word of the Week! Harum-Scarum Richmond Writing

Word of the Week! Harum-Scarum Richmond Writing I have had a rather rushed and chaotic week renovating a house we rent, just ahead of new tenants arriving. Thus, Ive acted rather harum-scarum about this blog, and that gives me a good opportunity to share a favorite word often found in English Literature before 1900. The OED Online shows a likely etymology as a rhyme made up of hare + scare. If you have walked up on a bunny and watched it flee wildly, going one direction, then another, you get a sense of the recklessness and panic of the resulting harum-scarum behavior. The term is not very old, and the oldest example (perhaps misheard by the writer) from the 17th Century is harum-starum! Wild, rash, reckless, chaotic, running one way, then another! I frequently see it in Dickensian prose about a harum-scarum fellow one cannot trust to act calmly. Not long ago I chastised a friend about his undependable harum-scarum friends, knowing that a fellow English Major would get the reference. This blog will continue all summer, so nominate a word by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below. See all of our Words of the Week  here. Image from Nick Parks excellent 2005 film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, just because I could not resist.