Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Date "ABBOTSFORD" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1896. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Abbotsford A name given by Sir Walter Scott to Clarty Hole, on the south bank of the Tweed, after it became his residence. Sir Walter devised the name from a fancy he loved to indulge in, that the abbots of Melrose Abbey, in ancient times, passed over the fords of the Tweed. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
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Abbotsford is a historic house in the region of Scottish Borders in the south of Scotland, near Melrose, on south bank of the River Tweed. It was formerly the residence of Sir Walter Scott.
The nucleus of the estate was a small farm of 100 acres, called Cartleyhole, nicknamed Clarty (i.e., muddy) Hole, and bought by Scott on the lapse of his lease (1811) of the neighbouring house of Ashestiel. He at first built a small villa (now the western end of the house) and named it Abbotsford, creating the name from a ford near by where previously abbots of Melrose Abbey used to cross the river. Scott then built additions to the house and made it into a mansion, building into the walls many sculptured stones from ruined castles and abbeys of Scotland. In it he gathered a large library, and a collection of ancient furniture, arms and armor, and other relics and curiosities, especially connected with Scottish history.
The last and principal acquisition being that of Toftfield (afterwards named Huntlyburn), purchased in 1817. The new house was then begun and completed in 1824.
The general ground-plan is a parallelogram, with irregular outlines, one side overlooking the Tweed; and the style is mainly the Scottish Baronial. Into various parts of the fabric were built relics and curiosities from historical structures, such as the doorway of the old Tolbooth in Edinburgh.
Scott had only enjoyed his residence one year when (1825) he met with that reverse of fortune which involved the estate in debt. In 1830 the library and museum were presented to him as a free gift by the creditors. The property was wholly disencumbered in 1847 by Robert Cadell, the publisher, who cancelled the bond upon it in exchange for the family's share in the copyright of Sir Walter's works.
Scott's only son Walter did not live to enjoy the property, having died on his way from India in 1847. Among subsequent possessors were Scott's son-in-law, J. G. Lockhart, J. R. Hope Scott, Q.C., and his daughter (Scott's great-granddaughter), the Hon. Mrs Maxwell Scott.
Abbotsford gave its name to the "Abbotsford Club," a successor of the Bannatyne and Maitland clubs, founded by W. B. D. D. Turnbull in 1834 in Scott's honour, for printing and publishing historical works connected with his writings. Its publications extended from 1835 to 1864.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Abbotsford."
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Abbotsford from the garden. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Sir Walter Scott, Bart. in his study at Abbotsford / Painted by W. Allan, R.A. ; engraved by H.S. Sadd, N.Y. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "ABBOTSFORD" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "ABBOTSFORD" is used about 8 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 100% | 8 | 124,375 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
1. Abbotsford, WI (city, FIPS 100) |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
Misspellings | |
"ABBOTSFORD" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Bonsford. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-b-d-f-o-o-r-s-t" | |
-4 letters: abbots, aborts, absorb, adobos, adsorb, baboos, boards, boarts, broads, broods, dobras, dobros, drafts, forbad, robots, taboos, tabors. | |
-5 letters: abbot, abort, adobo, afoot, baboo, barbs, bards, barfs, board, boars, boart, boast, boats, boobs, boors, boost, boots, boras, borts, botas, brads, brats, broad, brood, broos, darbs, darts, datos, doats, dobra, dobro, doors, dorsa, drabs. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 42 42 4F 54 53 46 4F 52 44 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- -... -... --- - ... ..-. --- .-. -.. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01000010 01000010 01001111 01010100 01010011 01000110 01001111 01010010 01000100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A B B O T S F O R D |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0042 0042 004F 0054 0053 0046 004F 0052 0044 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)35363649545340495238 |
| 1. Definition 2. Images: Slideshow 3. Images: Photo Album 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Cities 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Derivations 8. Anagrams | 9. Orthography 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
