Wordplay/ What's fun about the HPs? -- "hogshead"

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 152728

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, ClareWashbrook at ... wrote:
>
> >Geoff:
> 
> >For  comparison, my source was the following:
> 
> >'Hogshead > noun 1 a large  cask. 2 a measure of liquid volume equal >to 52.5 
imperial gallons (63 US  gallons, 238.7 litres) for wine or >54 imperial gallons (64 US 
gallons,  245.5 litres) for beer.'
> 
> >(Reader's Digest Word Power  dictionary)
 
Clare:  
> This is an excerpt from the statute itself (the Roman numerals mean 3 score  and 3 = 
63):
>  
> "1423 Rolls  Parlt. IV. 256/1 Tonnes, Pipes, Tertians,  Hoggeshedes of wyn of 
Gascoign..shulden be of certein mesure..the Terciane IIIIXX  IIII  galons, the Hogges~hede 
IIIXX  III  galons."
>  
> Oxford English Dictionary:
> 
> "... Such a caskful of liquor; a liquid measure containing 63 old  
> wine-gallons ..."
> 
> "In later use varying from 100 to 140 gallons; the hogshead ... in  1749 ... fixed at 100 
gallons. "
> 
> Your Imperial equivalent is correct (53 Imperial gallons) but this  
> measurement was never used and is not used now.  The hogshead was out of  use 
during Imperial measurements and we are now metric. 
>  
> For interests sake, the first person to use it as a metaphor  (which is the beginning of 
the linguistic line which culminates (for now) in  Rowling's use) was Boswell in 1769 - "a 
hogshead of sense"  

Geoff:
What is interesting from your statute is the unorthodox use of Roman numerals. 63 should 
be rendered LXIII. It's also of interest that the "old" wine-gallon mentioned in the OED 
reference seems to equate to the US gallon.

Perhaps I shall have to go into the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade and order a hogshead of 
wine for Bill and Fleur's wedding paid from my account at Hogwarts.

Try saying that ten times quickly. Fred and George might kick off having a go....

BTW, please do not use bad language on the group. As a true-born Englishman, I must 
close my ears to the use of the word "metric" .
:-)