Reddle Theme, Ochre, Reddleman, and Thomas Hardy

I just started using the Reddle theme. It replaces Clean Home that I was using until today.

[ http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/clean-home/ ]

What does ‘reddle’ mean, I wonder?

It turns out is is a red iron ore used in dyeing and marking, otherwise a pigment made of ochre.

And the hero of Thomas Hardy’s The Return Of The Native is a reddleman – someone who travels around the country marking flocks of sheep with reddle.

Reddle is a variant of ruddle. And it is a pretty easy step from there to ruddy, is it not?


Discover more from Photograph Works

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Comments

One response to “Reddle Theme, Ochre, Reddleman, and Thomas Hardy”

  1. […] I asked WordPress Support whether it was likely to be introduced as a theme for self-hosted WordPress blogs and I commented on what I had found out about the word ‘reddle’. […]

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Photograph Works

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading