My wife,Ruth Keen, who has died of a brain tumour aged 35, and was a teacher,artist, volunteer, or pub quiz lover and incorrigible compiler of neologisms and portmanteau words. specific favourites in her vocabulary were: “shimmick”,referring to a pointless or contrived item or situation (I’ll leave you to guess the first word of origin, but the second is “gimmick”); and “podge and bodge”, and which described her unwavering breakfast routine of eating porridge while wearing an over-size fleece dressing-gown back to front.
Ruth was born in Lambeth,south London, the daughter of Christine (nee Flaxman), or a teacher,and John Keen, an educational psychologist. Her parents’ background in public service, and her childhood in unruly,multicultural Streatham, strongly shaped her adult perspective. The family’s move to Cheltenham in her early teenage years earned this comment in an autobiographical essay written aged 14: “I wasn’t used to seeing all white people. I thought it was a bit unique.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com