But here is what
irritates me. All kinds of people talk
about the origin of the term as if they were right there at the start. I wasn’t. I bet you weren’t as well.
What I can say is that I first started hearing the term in
the (wonderful) Dark Ages group The Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia. NOT to
be confused with the highly farbish SCA.
This was mid 70s. Long before most of you guys out there had
even heard of reenacting (let alone been born).
I asked around about where the hell the word came from, and what it
really meant.
It was at the 1,010th anniversary reenactment of
the Battle of Hastings (take that 125th ACW vets!) when a friend
pointed to a guy and told “hey, I think he knows about the word farb.” I went
over and asked the guy. Sadly, I no
longer have no idea who it was.
He was an old time ACW reenactor and told me it came from
there, and had been started by a friend of his.
Seems they wanted a polite way of pointing out stupid non-period stuff that
was out of character when walking around the camp. The example given to me was
that there might be a blue cooler sitting outside a tent. They could nod that
way and say “Farb.” Meaning Look at the totally wrong colored item. The guys
with said item would have no idea they had just been dissed. I just assumed
that since this was so reasonable and
probable it was true.
And then, many, MANY years later after most people who would
have been around in the early days, some WW2 reenactors from the Midwest started
telling people it was short for ‘far be it from me to blah blah blah…’ I remember the first time I heard that. I
thought it was so totally stupid and obviously a derivative explanation based
upon a best guess by someone that had no real clue. I mean, WHAT are the
chances someone would come up with that? Seriously? Unless they had the word
farb to being with and were trying to think of what it could be from.
Then, the whole far be it thing gets in print (although to
be honest I had printed the German color explanation long beforehand in a unit
newsletter and not one person every told me they had heard of another answer). And as the old reenactment guard drifted away,
the new experts decided they had read the "far be" thing in print so
it must be true.
Even later it pissed me off reading wikkipediahat they
didn’t even consider a different meaning. I added in my explanation with dates
and such so that an alternative (and probably correct) version was at least
represented. It was deleted in a week.
So I was really pleased to discover the writings of Jonah Begone, Scourge of American Civil War Reenacting
!
He
writes a lot of really amusing stuff about ACW and REV war reenacting. Not really
my periods, but his comments ring so true to other periods I have been in that
I find them a hoot. I also find it even more of a hoot that reenactment humor
translates so well between periods. I recommend them highly. http://wesclark.com/jw/
Anyway,
The esteemed Jonah (not his real name) happened to write a nice little article
about the word Farb that puts everyone else to shame. HE has names, places,
units, and dates. Take that ‘far be
it.’crowd. I thnk we can finally say… BUSTED!
I
mean think of it. What makes more sense?
Some guys use a simple German word to privately indicate to each other that something
is not authentic, or someone takes a strangely worded and highly awkward phrase,
and breaks it down to create a word from parts of it. (or that it comes from
some old and never referenced letter where someone discovered if you take the
first letter of a description it spells farb).
Until
someone can come up with better proof that the word does not derive from the
German word for color, this is the answer to that question. http://wesclark.com/jw/forigin.html
You
dont like it? Well, do your research,
and show us your evidence.
Oh,
and the Hastings event? It was at the University of Baltimore. In Maryland.
Where Jonah says the word started. Coincidence? Maybe, but it does wrap things up nicely.
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