Whitwell's Liquid Improved Opodeldoc

[wolffbp]

RE: Whitwell's Liquid Improved Opoldeldoc

Nice Bottle! Here's an advert from a 1822 paper. Appearantly it is from the same Whitwell as the Aromatic Snuff.

 

[woody]

RE: Whitwell's Liquid Improved Opoldeldoc

Nice article.
It's good to put them together as the same manufactuer.
Thanks for posting that, Brian.

 

[surfaceone]

Hey Woody,

Man what a beauty, with a view too! I wanna know how one pronounces it. Does one say, "Hey Robert, wanna share a bottle of "OPPO DELL DOC," or if the "L" is silent, a bottle of "OPPO DEE DOC?" What'ya think?

"OPODELDOC.
I'm finally reading Gogol's Dead Souls in Russian, and a few pages into Chapter Four I encountered the following line (addressed by the cheerful scoundrel Nozdryov to the protagonist, Chichikov, who has just refused to join him because of pressing business):
— Ðу вот уж и дело! уж и выдумал! ÐÑ… Ñ‚Ñ‹, Оподелдок Иванович!
Like much of Gogol's dialogue, this is more or less untranslatable, but the first two exclamations can be prosaically rendered "'Business'! You just made that up!" The last one, however, baffled me; word for word, it means "Oh you, Opodeldok Ivanovich!" Opodeldok was clearly not an actual Russian name, so I looked it up in my trusty Oxford dictionary (where it is listed under the more usual spelling оподельдок), and there it was—helpfully defined as "opodeldoc." I let out a bellow of rage at the perfidy of the lexicographers who had taken the easy way out, refusing to give the user the slightest actual help, requiring an additional trip to the OED. There I found:

opodeldoc, n.
Forms: 16 opodeldoch, oppodeltoch, 17-18 opodeldock, 17- opodeldoc, 18 opodeltoch; U.S. regional 18 appodell-dock, ophodelac, opodildoc, opydildock, 19- opadilldock, opedildoc, opedildock. [< post-classical Latin oppodeltoch (see quots. a1541), prob. coined by Paracelsus; perh. < ancient Greek ὀπός vegetable juice (see OPIUM n.); for the ending, perh. cf. post-classical Latin nostoch NOSTOC ['A gelatinous mass consisting of filamentous colonies of cyanobacteria of the genus Nostoc... embedded in mucilage... The gelatinous mass was formerly believed to be an emanation of the stars: see star-jelly, etc'] n. Cf. French opodeldoch (dated 16th cent. in Robert Dict. Alphabétique et Analogique (1986); also as opodeltoch (1758)).
a1541 PARACELSUS Bertheonea (1603) 90 Descriptio oppodeltoch. {Jupiter symbol}. De quatuor seminibus incarnatiuis ℥. Ceræ Colophoniæ ana ℥ij. Picis naualis ℥iij. Reduc in emplastrum. a1541 PARACELSUS Bertheonea (1603) 97 Descriptio oppodeltoch. {Jupiter symbol}. Colophoniæ lib.j. puluerum chelidoniæ, aranciarum ana ℥iiij. Visci de botin, quantum satis est ad incorporationem.]

†1. A medical plaster. Obs.

1646 SIR T. BROWNE Pseud. Epidemica II. iii. 73 The Opodeldoch and Attractivum of Paracelsus. 1656 tr. Paracelsus' Dispens. 305 Now you must apply the Oppodeltoch Plaister. 1658 W. JOHNSON tr. F. Würtz Surgeons Guid II. vi. 62 In case the Wound doth not bleed.. lay a Headplaister to it, after the manner of an Opodeldoch. 1733 J. ALLEYNE New Eng. Dispensatory 353/1 Emplastrum Opodeldoc. 1857 R. G. MAYNE Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860), Opodeltoch, the name of a plaster.. referred to by Paracelsus.

2. An alcoholic solution of soap (or oleic acid) and camphor with some added essential oils; soap liniment; (also) a preparation made from this, esp. by mixing with laudanum; now arch. In extended use: (U.S. regional) any medicine; alcohol.
Steer's opodeldoc, a soap liniment composed of soap, camphor, oils of marjoram and rosemary, alcohol, and ammonia solution.
Opodeldoc appeared in the 1722 Edinburgh Pharmacopœia (Pharmacopœia Coll. Reg. Medicorum Edinburgensis 134) as Unguentum opodeldoch; in the 1744 ed. (Pharmacopoeia Coll. Reg. Medicorum Edinburgensis 121) it is called ‘Balsamum Saponaceum, vulgò Oppodeltoch’, and in 1745 the London Pharmacopoeia (Plan New London Pharmacopœia 113) entered it under Linimentum Saponaceum (cf. quot. 1996).

[1650 Chymical Dict. Paracelsus, Oppodeltoch in Paracelsus is an ointment.] 1733 G. CHEYNE Eng. Malady II. xii. 243 Warm and active Oils and Ointments, especially the Opodeldoc. 1746 SIR A. WESTCOMB in Mrs. Delany's Autobiogr. & Corr. II. 440 Tell my aunt that I use oil of earthworms with opodeldoc to endeavour to dispel the lump. 1774 ‘J. COLLIER’ Musical Trav. 19 He rubbed it with opodeldock or arquebusade water. 1826 SCOTT Jrnl. 25 Dec. (1939) 295 By dint of abstinence and opodeldoc I passed a better night. 1830 in M. H. Gardiner & A. H. Gardiner Chron. Old Berkeley (1938) 310 Bought 1 vial of appodell-dock at 25 cents. 1842 R. H. BARHAM Black Mousquetaire in Ingoldsby Legends, Her delicate fingers are charred With the Steer's opodeldoc, joint oil, and goulard. 1842 Invoice in Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. (1950) 37 455, 2 phials Liquid ophodelac whitwell. 1851 J. J. HOOPER Widow Rugby's Husband 91 He axed me if I had enny opydildock in the wagin box, that he could rub his side with. 1857 T. HUGHES Tom Brown's School Days I. vi. 126 Leaving East better for those few words than all the opodeldoc in England would have made him. 1890 Chambers's Encycl. VI. 644 Soap Liniment, or Opodeldoc, the constituents of which are soap, camphor, and spirits of rosemary. 1904 ‘O. HENRY’ Heart of West 33 Rub the place between your shoulder-blades with opodeldoc the same as ever. 1913 C. JOHNSON Highways & Byways Great Lakes (new ed.) 77 They went to town last night and took a little too much opedildoc. c1965 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (1996) III. 890/2 A long time ago my husband.. would say whenever he had to take any medicine.. ‘Wall, I will take a little opadilldock.’ 1996 Martindale: Extra Pharmacopoeia (ed. 31) 2287/2 Soap Liniment has sometimes been known as Lin. Sap. and Opodeldoc.

It's easy to see why this remarkable word caught on; its magniloquent pseudo-onomatopoeia was catnip to the linguistic sense of nineteenth-century America, with its love of sonorous rodomontade, and it seems to have been preserved in regional dialects until fairly recently (and perhaps survives to this day—anybody know?). At any rate, I'm glad to have discovered it, and I hope you will be too. If only I knew what the hell Gogol meant by "Opodeldok Ivanovich," my joy would be complete.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go rub some opodeldoc on my aching shoulder." From language hat.

There's a great ad for Improved Liquid Opodeldoc in this issue of the Batavia Advocate of October 11, 1822. Fourth column just above the fold...

 

[wolffbp]

ORIGINAL: surfaceone

There's a great ad for Improved Liquid Opodeldoc in this issue of the Batavia Advocate of October 11, 1822. Fourth column just above the fold...

That's the ad I posted.

 

[surfaceone]

That's the ad I posted.

Right you are, Brian,

My apologies, for the oversight, but I never read to the second page of this thread, before posting. Sorry, wish I could clip em out the way you did. Nice job, sir.

 

[sandchip]

RE: Whitwell's Liquid Improved Opoldeldoc

ORIGINAL: woody

A friend of mine, who lived in an old cape from the early 1800's, gave it to me, Joe. He found it in his basement and knew I collected old bottles.
I found alot of old bottles in the dump he had behind his house. One of the best was a pontiled saphire blue umbrella ink.[]

What a pal! What a pal!

 

[wolffbp]

RE: Whitwell's Liquid Improved Opoldeldoc

hit Prnt Scrn key, right-click, Paste into photo editor and crop. Easy as that my friend []

 

[downeastdigger]

RE: Whitwell's Liquid Improved Opoldeldoc

OUTSTANDING! Nice job Woody, great bottle!