Flying Chaucers (Linguistics)

[Hatty]

[Ishmael]

There is something very odd about this passage:

She childed her first gotten son, and wrapped him in cloths and put him in a cracche, for there was not place to him in the common stable.

What is odd is that this isn't the bible-story.

The story in the Gospel, as we know it, has the child placed in a "manger" because there was no room at the inn. Here, we have a child placed in something called a "cracche" because there was no room in the stable.

Why is the story different?

Regardless, whatever a cracche is, it shouldn't be something found within a stable -- as there was no room inside the stable for the child, according to this version of the story.

So what is a cracche?

It occurs to me that it might be a place where a person might sleep when no other place is available.

Which reminds me of a word that has popular North American usage in exactly this context: "Crash".

In North America, if you attend a party and stay too late or drink too much (think Dionysus), you don't return to your own bed or sleep in one provided by your host (as these are typically full already). Instead, you "crash" on the sofa. You might in fact ask your host if it is permissible for you to "crash" at his home.

So just as the verb "childed" survives today only in the form of the noun "child", perhaps the noun "crash" survives today only as a verb.

[Ishmael]

Moses.

Placed in a basket.

Dionysus.

Placed in a basket.

Jesus.

Placed in a cracche.

Is a cracche/crash a basket?

[Ishmael]

A "crash cart" is indeed a kind of portable basket.

[Ishmael]

In fundamental phonetics, ch / sh / st / t are all cognate. Let's look at what happens when we substitute "t" for "cch":

Cracche becomes Crate.

Now what is a crate?

"A large frame box or or basket made of strips of wood..."
-- World Book Dictionary

[Ishmael]

Crate

"A kind of basket or hamper of wicker-work"
-- An American Dictionary of the English Language

[Ishmael]

Now I'll go out on a limb where few will choose to follow.

I suspect we are reading here the original story of the birth of Christ. The transformation of the basket into a "manger" is another instance of an error being made when the original English tale was translated -- this time into Greek.

What is the Classic Greek word for basket or crate?

hmmm... kofa.

Nothing there it seems.

[Ishmael]

Well what do you know! Even in modern usage, there is still a type of basket known as a "Crash".

Picture of a "Crash" Basket

[Ishmael]

Here's another:

Crash Basket

Now what is the defining characteristic of a Crash basket? It is its mesh construction. It looks like a kind of sieve.

Now what sort of basket is used explicitly as a sieve? A winnowing basket. A winnowing basket used to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Dionysus was specifically placed in a winnowing basket.

Now we know Jesus was too.

[Ishmael]

"Common Stable"

I'm willing to bet the original phrase meant hotel / motel / inn! A common stable was a temporary residence that many people shared "in common".

The original story then went like this (paraphrased):

The Christ child was laid in a winnowing basket because there was no bed available in the inn.

The meaning of common stable was not understood by the scribes tasked with re-writing the tale in Greek. They got it muddled up and penned the story we know, of a baby born in a stable because there was no bed available in the inn.

[Hatty]

[Ishmael]

[Hatty]

Coffer, where objects are kept for safety or offerings are placed, is the same word as coffin according to online etymology: from Gk. kophinos "a basket," of uncertain origin.

[Chad]

A traditional cratch:

[nemesis8]