Talk:mirliton

RFC discussion: September 2012–July 2013
Tagged in 2009, but never posted here, this interwiki isn't just encyclopedic, it's an encyclopedia of its own! It needs pruning, and it needs lots of material in the definitions moved to etymology sections and usage notes, or maybe spun off into a BBC documentary mini-series... Chuck Entz (talk) 21:26, 22 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Struck. Has since been greatly improved. - -sche (discuss) 01:57, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

RFV discussion: October–November 2012
I am sending all senses to RFV, except for the chayote one, as that is a sense present in some OneLook dictionaries. Presumably, the senses will fail the request for verification and get deleted, but let us see. --Dan Polansky (talk) 19:29, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Rfv-sense: A buzzword created to refer to and advertise a new women's bonnet style (AKA "coiffure de gaze" as seen in the early 19th century French painting Portrait De Jeune Femme (En Coiffure De Gaze) by Henri Pierre-Louis Grevedon see here) of 1723 involving a gauzy cloth or net for which the word was invented. Within months, comedies of the time created songs and verses using the new word to make light of political and social leaders. The word gained the meaning sense as a catch-all phrase such that it might refer to any silly trifle or thing of little value or merit as in the English word folderol.[1] From there, it acquired more serious, specific usages.
 * Rfv-sense: (music) The eunuch flute, a kind of membranophone.
 * Rfv-sense: An 18th-century hussar hat resembling a slightly conical shako or tall fez.
 * Rfv-sense: A tube-shaped pastry imitative of the shape of a short toy flute (This shape is now more closely associated with a toy siren whistle).
 * Rfv-sense: A tartlet or biscuit garnished with almond, first produced in Rouen around 1800.[3][4]
 * Rfv-sense: A version of the gold louis d'or coin made during Louis XV's reign.[5][6][7]
 * Rfv-sense: A railroad sign used on the French SNCF network. It is typically a long rectangle with broad diagonal black
 * Actually, someone should just delete mirliton, which was incorrectly copied from Transwiki:Mirliton. As a next step, Transwiki:Mirliton should be moved to mirliton, and the senses tagged with rfv-sense. --Dan Polansky (talk) 19:38, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
 * It is possible to merge the page histories. I don't want to bother if all the senses fail rfv. Mglovesfun (talk) 22:33, 5 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Alright. Here's what I've found.
 * Membranophone: a mirliton is a kazoo or makeshift musical instrument consisting of two thin membranes through which the breath or voice passes (possibly a translation of the French, but referring to the title of Beckett play), It has an inner diameter of about 38 millimeters and is closed at the proximal end by a hollow sphere of black beeswax that has a small perforation over which a thin membrane, usually from a pig's intestine, is stretched as a mirliton., Mirliton membranes are made of much less elastic materials than drum membranes (e.g.. paper, onion skin, spider egg sacs), and they are loose rather than taut.
 * Hat sense: The headdress was a fur busby for the 1st-4th Regts., and a felt mirliton or Flügelmütze for the remainder (also worn by the 4th, 1752-71), By 1795 the mirliton hussar-cap had universally replaced the fur-crested Tarleton-style helmet. (Perhaps use of French word) Headwear: This was either the colpack or the mirliton.
 * Almond biscuit sense: have moulds prepared as for the mirlitons of Rouen (maybe French, although it is "mirlitons of Rouen" not "mirlitons de Rouen") To make the mirliton, in a bowl, break the eggs, add both the sugars, the double cream, almond meal, lemon zest and melted butter., The mirlitons popular in Paris and Normandy are made much like financiers except that the financier batter is baked in small tartlet shells made of pâté sucrée (arguably also French, although the text also italicises financier, which we have as an English word), The mirlitons I am familiar with are little puff pastries filled with almond paste/cream and decorated on the outside with almonds.
 * There are lots of mentions of the gold coin usage in English coin catalogues, but as far as I can tell, no uses in running text (it looks like this is an example, but sadly the snippet view doesn't show all the hits). Nothing for the railway sense. The other pastry sense may just be an extension of the first, although all the hits I found for mirliton described them as tartlets, not tubes. Smurrayinchester (talk) 07:06, 6 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Cited the fruit/vine, the flute, and the cake, which are the only senses in Chambers. Equinox ◑ 12:15, 8 October 2012 (UTC)


 * The cited senses pass RFV; I have removed the uncited ones. - -sche (discuss) 05:25, 29 November 2012 (UTC)