<snip>
"Playing gooseberry" is being the third, unwelcome, person to a couple.
Apparently chaperones used to pick gooseberries whilst chaperoning, which
would appear to limit the courting season somewhat.
<snip>
I'm not sure about the unwelcome bit, at least historically: a compliant
gooseberry would have been of value.
Partridge has, incidentally, a marvellous (if suspect) suggested derivation:
gooseberry = fool (< gooseberry fool), hence chaperon.
<snip>
Does anyone know whether this term has any connection with the saying about
babies being found under gooseberry bushes?
<snip>
'Gooseberry bush' is said to be a euphemism for bush (= pubic hair), but I
lack a proper citation (Grose, for example, has nothing) and without one I
am sceptical.
Rather oddly, the French for gooseberry (groseille a maquereau) ought to
mean 'pimping currant'.
CW
(who has recently wasted an inordinate amount of time trying to trace the
origin of 'bulldozer')
__________________________________________
'When six men tell you you're drunk, Morty, lie down'
(Morton Feldman's grandmother)
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