Seashell Quotes (2 quotes)
SEASHELLS. You must bring some back from the seashore.
In The Dictionary of Accepted Ideas (1881), trans. Jaques Barzun (1968), 79. A footnote indicates that here, “Seashells” is a loose translation of the French Galets, which are medium-sized rounded stones found mostly on the Channel beaches. Checking other dictionary sources, “galet” can be translated as cobble, a puck or shingle. But compare, in Spanish, a galet is a type of pasta characterized by its shell shape.
She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore,
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I’m sure
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I’m sure she sells sea-shore shells.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I’m sure
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I’m sure she sells sea-shore shells.
Tongue-twister by Terry Sullivan (1908), suggested as inspired by Mary Aiming. As quoted in Deborah Cadbury, Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World (2000), 3.