But when I get a note from a woman these days it contains something very mundane, such as “what does this word mean?”

The note asked me about drubbing. This woman came from a newspaper. When I get a note from a newspaper person asking about drubbing, I feel pleased that I have retired.

Why would a newspaper person talk about drubbing? My next thought was that some poor journalist was in for some corrective therapy.

Drubbing in general terms represents a beating, or punishment, but its origins seem to be in doubt.

The first use, in print, of the word that I could find was in 1634, when Sir Thomas Herbert, using the spelling of the day, commented “he confest and was drubd right handsomely”.

The word seems to have come into English from Sir Thomas’s travels in the Orient. It was related to the bastinado, which was a form of torture which related to the caning of feet.

I haven’t been caned on the feet, but I could hardly imagine that as torture. I thought it would tickle. It probably depends on who does the caning.

Sir Thomas Herbert (1606–1682), was an English traveller, historian and a gentleman of the bedchamber of King Charles I while Charles I was in the custody of parliament (from 1647 until the king's execution in January 1649).

 It was possible that the word came from the Barbary states, in north Africa, where many Christians suffered.

Owen Barfield, writing in History in English Words, said drubbing was thought to be an Arabicword brought back by suffering Christians from the Barbary states.

But opinions about the origin of the word differ. The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, published in 1811, said to drub was to beat with a stick or rope’s end.

Again Sir Thomas Herbert said the petitioner was almost drubd to death. I think he was referring to a different person there, but drubbed certainly had a good workout in those days.

Samuel Pepys in his diary said “he would have got seaman to have drubbed them”. I don’t know whether “they” died.

Under drubbing, the big dictionary is precise, a little too precise for some tender readers.

It says James Howell in 1640 said the Turks had all sorts of punishment, including drubbing, guunshing (I don’t know what that means, but I’m sure it represented some form of torture), flaying alive and impaling.

Maybe the drubbing was the warm-up act. But drubbing did not always result in death.

Samuel  Butler writing in Hudibras commented on “the blows and drubs I have received”.

A person who hands out the drubbing is called a drubman.

Now, I will have to ask why that newspaper person wanted to know. Actually, to be fair, she mentioned a sports commentator in her question.

Can you imagine the scene: Queensland gave NSW a drubbing in the State of Origin Rugby League match. No, it will never happen.

Has anybody else noticed that in many television advertisements involving a car the car seems go be driven on the right-hand side of the road?

Are the advertisements imported from the UnitedState or does somebody just employ bad drivers?

Laurie Barber’s weekly column has entered its 23rd year and has not missed a week and is now published in regional newspapers throughout Australia and NZ. Visit my word and works at lauriebarber.com or email me at lbword@midcoast.com.au.