h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On the BBC website there is a link to the order of service for the Thatcher funeral today. The choice of texts is very traditional and very moving.

The order of procession mentions several "virgers".

https://www.stpauls.co.uk/documents/news%20stories/btoos.pdf

I hope someone proof read it before they printed it for the congregation.

Not a blooper, a quirk. OED gives the spelling 'virger' and says it is

'Obs. exc. at certain cathedrals, such as St. Paul's and Winchester.'

That's very interesting. I couldn't imagine that they'd make a mistake on something like that, so I checked (well, at least on the internet) first. It just looked so odd.

Perhaps I really should subscribe to the OED before I make more fools of myself.

Does it say where the word comes from ?

Oh it does. It is a 'variant of verger' which is defined first as 'An official who carries a rod or similar symbol of office before the dignitaries of a cathedral, church, or university' and secondly as 'One whose duty it is to take care of the interior of a church, and to act as attendant.'

The derivation is given as either from the Latin virgarius, or 'after virge' which has several meanings, one of them being 'A rod or wand; esp. a rod of office.'

Funnily virgarius doesn't appear in my Latin dictionary or an online one I tried, but virga does: twig, graft, rod, staff, walking stick, wand or stripe of colour. In French, verge is a slang word for penis.

I get free access to the OED online from teaching in the Dublin Institute of Technology. It costs £215 plus VAT for a year's subscription as an individual, which seems steep to me. But it is fun.

It's about as much fun as you can possibly have without appearing cool.

I have heard of virga in relation to Gregorian notation. (That stuff's coming out of my ears at the moment)

Virgule is familar as French for comma.

TC, you didn't make a fool of yourself, you educated some of us, thank you as I would have made exactly the same mistake.

Websailor