Literary notes about Colly (AI summary)
In literature, "colly" is a versatile word, appearing both as a proper name and as a descriptive term that conveys specific traits or moods. Authors often use it as a nickname or personal identifier—imbuing characters with a down-to-earth, sometimes folksy quality [1, 2, 3]—or to label inanimate objects and animals, as seen when it evokes rural imagery in nursery rhymes and pastoral narratives [4, 5, 6]. Beyond its role as a name, "colly" also functions adjectivally, contributing to expressions like "colly-wabbles" that capture feelings of nervousness or physical unease [7, 8, 9]. In some historical and dramatic texts, the word even appears as part of estate names or surnames, linking characters to social status or regional identity [10, 11, 12].
- They had two girls and a boy--Meely, Colly and Tobe.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United StatesFrom Interviews with Former SlavesArkansas Narratives, Part 7 by United States. Work Projects Administration - Colly, my friend, if you meet with any harm, I swear to avenge it, whenever my hands are free."
— from The Boy Slaves by Mayne Reid - "You see, Master Colly," said Bill, turning to the young Scotchman.
— from The Boy Slaves by Mayne Reid - The fourth day of Christmas, My true love sent to me Four colly birds, Three French hens, Two turtle doves, and A partridge in a pear tree.
— from The Nursery Rhymes of England - But now I have kill'd her, I can't her recall; I will sell my poor Colly, Hide, horns, and all.
— from The Nursery Rhymes of England - Sing, oh poor Colly, Colly, my cow, For Colly will give me No more milk now.
— from The Nursery Rhymes of England - But after they met us, and digested all the implications, they would develop the colly-wobbles no end.
— from First Lensman by E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith - To-morrow you quit work, and we move to the Ritz—they know me there, and—this delightful, home-like grotto of yours gives me the colly-wabbles."
— from The Auction Block by Rex Beach - This place is enough to give one the colly-wabbles.
— from The Easiest Way Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911 by Eugene Walter - He was also steward of Colly Weston and other manors belonging to Princess Elizabeth.
— from The Great Lord Burghley: A study in Elizabethan statecraft by Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp) Hume - that John Colly deceased, held the Mannour and Advowson of Glaiston of Edward Duke of Buckingham, as of his Castle of Okeham by knights service.
— from An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Volume 1 (of 2) Written by Himself. A New Edition with Notes and Supplement by Colley Cibber - 13, No 21 (Colly Weston in Northants): “The inhabitants for bushy ground paying two years 11s.
— from The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century by R. H. (Richard Henry) Tawney
