Saturday, 2 June 2012

Chuzzlewit

Is there a bawdy pun in Dickens's made-up name, here?  'Chusherel', 'Chuserel' or 'Chuzerel' means (the OED informs me) 'a whoremaster, a debauched fellow', a man who indulges himself carnally.  If 'chuzzle' or variants thereof is slang for a fucker, then wouldn't that make Chuzzle-wit fuckwit?  Surely not, Charlie!

1 comment:

Nicola Vincent-Abnett said...

I do hope so.

Reminds me of "I got it from Agnes" by Tom Lehrer. Who could have guessed that a mathematician would know what a 'Lucky Pierre' was?

Thank heavens for worldly men