godwottery, God wot! The Great War

godwottery (god-WOT-uhr-ee)

noun
1. Gardening marked by an affected and elaborate style.
2. Affected use of archaic language.

Etymology
From the line "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!" in a poem by Thomas Edward Brown (1830-1897)

Now here is a word with a dual personality. Poet T.E. Brown unwittingly helped coin it when he wrote a poem describing his garden filled with all that came to his mind: grotto, pool, ferns, roses, fish, and more.
And when he needed a word to rhyme with the line "Rose plot," he came up with "God wot! " He used "wot", an archaic term that's a variant of wit (to know), to mean "God knows!" and it stood out among other contemporary words in the poem.
If you wish to create your own godwottery, we recommend: sundials, gnomes, fairies, plastic sculptures, fake rockery, pump-driven streams, and wrought-iron furniture. A pair of pink flamingos will round it out nicely.

Usage
"And an important thing about all this godwottery -- as Anthony Burgess calls it -- is that all types and classes embrace it." — Paul Fussell; The Great War 第一次世界大戰 and Modern Memory; Oxford University Press; 2000.



wot
(wŏt)
v.
First and third person singular present tense of wit².

[Middle English wat, from Old English wāt.]

wit² (wĭt)

v. Archaic, wist (wĭst), wit·ting (wĭt'ĭng), first and third person singular present tense, wot (wŏt). v.tr.
To be or become aware of; learn.

v.intr.
To know.

idiom:

to wit

1. That is to say; namely.

[Middle English, from Old English witan.]