The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

Chapter 6 - Peculiarities of Masonic Language 385
the English Language in its 1 st edition from 1966 is one of the rare dictionaries
that define this term: "Tom Swiftie, a play on words that follows an unvarying
pattern and relies for its humor on a punning relationship between the way an
adverb describes a speaker and at the same time refers significantly to the import
of the speaker's statement [...]." For example: " 'This is the first step towards my
thesis,' said Tom abstractly." Here, "abstract" as the base of the adverb
"abstractly" creates a semantic link to the target word "thesis" in the main
sentence. An "abstract" really is the first step towards a thesis.
In actual use, Tom Swifties have an even broader meaning, and sometimes
lay the pun on verbs instead of on adverbs, such as: " 'I'm coming!' Tom
ejaculated." We will try to analyze the following Masonic abstracts of the genre,
with the knowledge we have already gained about Masonic phraseology. The
textual examples were taken from Wes Cook's Did You Know? 1242 , a popular and
funny book from the 1960's about "who is who" and "what is what" in Masonry.
The compiler collected his material from the Royal Arch Mason magazine. Some
of these Tom Swifties will be unintelligible for non-initiates, since it is
absolutely necessary to know the Masonic ritualistic diction and customs:
1. What kind of apron is that, the candidate asked innocently.
The white lambskin apron the Entered Apprentice is clothed with is a symbol
of innocence; thus, the semantic bridge between the base, "innocence", and the
target word, "apron", is created by synonymy through the harmless question of a
neophyte.
2. Our ancient brethren assembled on high hills, he said loftily.
Here, the old saying that the brethren, before convenient lodges were
constructed, used to meet "on the highest of hills and in the lowest of
valleys," 1243 is the target expression evoked by the adverb "loftily", which refers
on the one hand to the supreme style (loftiness) used by the speaker, and on the
other hand to the height of the hills.
3. There is none in the north, he said darkly.
"None" refers to "light", the semantic link being an antonym for the base
"dark". There is a light in the east, west, and south, but never in the north of the
lodge. It can also refer to "window", which stands for "light", since old
catechisms state that there equally is a window in the east, west, and south, but
none in the north.
1242 Cook, p. 141/142.
1243 GHCD, p. 535.