Tuesday 7 July 2009

From a Wordbook

bundling, n. A political party’s custom, hardly to be averted, of offering to an electorate a range of policies which must thereupon be accepted together as a bundle, or not at all; wherewith a discerning vote for one policy by taste and attraction can be to no avail since it is an undifferentiated vote for them all by effect, albeit in the highly unlikely event that it has any effect at all. Cf., wholesaling, nose-holding, and unlucky-bag; not to be confused with bungling. See P.R. Hornblower’s The Unavoidable Legitimation of Unappealing and Treacherous Policies when Held in Common by All Politickal Parties in Democratick Republicks (London: 1691), celebrated author of Politickal Tricks and Phancies and How to Foole Them All of the Time.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If i recall aright, 'bundling' was also the name for a strange sort of heavy petting that went on back in the day - 19th C i think it was - i hear that men would routinely invite guests to bundle with their wives, though frankly i find this all a bit unlikely.

xlbrl said...

I suspect Hornblower stole this from some fragment of The Athenian Times, BC 325. Sounds like the Man himself.

James Higham said...

Not unlike the Chinese custom of referring to The Three Crimes or tThe Three Verities or whatever. Bundling.

Deogolwulf said...

Elberry,

You have broken one of the unwritten rules of this blog: no mention is to be made of strange sorts of nineteenth-century heavy petting. It is for the sake of us all.