Member-only story
When in the course of human events a ginormous reptile crosses your path and you want to assert your authority, the QUOTHA effect ain’t on your side.
A “quo” slams into a “tha”… Can’t you just hear this interjection sneer that its target is something less than the slime between its ravaging toes?
But hold on now, I say that word’s got some nerve. After all, it’s just a snort, a withering side glance, a down-the-nose glare… not even a word you can belt out in an argument like, “You better quotha yourself out that door!”
And even though quotha can also express surprise, no English speaker is going to shout “Quotha!” when their team gets an unexpected win.
That said, it does sound like a movement just waiting to happen and turn into a stadium’s human wave — can’t you just see it now: a rising and falling crest of fans traveling across the bleachers shouting “Quotha!”
Yeah, me neither.
Is it too much to ask of an archaic word born around 1519 when people said things like, “Too much quotha, Dear Sir!” to sniggle its way into modern parlance? How about:
“Your shady ways make me scream quotha!
Cuz your mind’s still way back in time
With ruffles and duels and horses and carriages
While I’m on the D-train, flying the Metro line”
Surprise or contempt… different sides of the human perspective coin. Choose your interpretation (it’s like Choose Your Own Adventure, only different). And pick up a conversation-starting tshirt at the link above :-)
