[pdurrant]

I've been spending some time recently preparing editions of Kidnapped and Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I've finished the tedious but necessary task of cleaning up the text, getting as close to what it should be as I can, given the number of minor variations that there are in the text in different editions.

I'm not going through the text, adding in extra glossary entries for Scots and other unusual words.

I had thought I knew the text of the books quite well, but I've been surprised at how many words I've just glided over in the past, getting some vague notion of their meaning from context, but not really knowing them at all. Mostly my lack of knowledge is unimportant to the story, but sometimes, knowing the meaning, or the exact meaning, does make a significant difference.

Some examples - did you know that in the mid 1700s a ‘capuchin’ was a short cloak worn by ladies, that didn't reach below the elbows? Or that a ‘negligee’ was a long evening dress with trailing folds? Or that your oxters are your arm-pits?

I didn't.

I wonder how many of you are like me, and blithly pass over unfamiliar words in a story, guessing their meaning from context as you go?

And I wonder how many of you actually go and look such words up when they come across them?