House-Dove
a vocab word you chose for me, a couple weeks ago.
Also, ambivert. Kinda.
Wow, what is it with these 15th-17th century words that are so good? I mean, that era is where I got Popination, after all…And this word (term?) is one that you all voted for. Well, not all of you, but enough that it’s the word (phrase?) of the week. So. What’s the definition of this compound word? Is it an old term for dovecote, that became more symbolic with the passing of time? Is it a synonym for introvert, from a time where psychology jargon wasn’t a thing?
House-Dove
A house-dove is a person who prefers to stay at home rather than go out. That friend that is relieved instead of disappointed when party plans change, and who never feels FOMO. The introvert that loves their blankets, pjs and cats at the end of a hard day rather than a populated happy hour. The cozy solitary. The agoraphobic. The socially anxious. Or just a well adjusted single. The princess in the tower. A solo human in the sanctuary of their growlery. I keep thinking about Emily Dickinson, too: wasn’t she famously bound to her room, by choice? Or was it by illness?
I’m what’s called in current pop psychology an ambivert, and I’ve talked about this several times before. I normally prefer relaxing at home, or at most at the little bar across the street amid quiet strangers or 3rd place acquaintances, in the middle of the afternoon. By the time night falls, I’m in bed snuggling my husband and my stuffed cat, a volume of Sherlock Holmes stories clutched in my hands.
Having said that, I was a BFA student of acting, and have been involved in live theatre for about 30 years now. As such, it can never be said that I’m a morning lark: early current bedtimes aside, I’m certainly still a theatre kid and a creature of the night. And so when I have a show scheduled, I’ll bounce up and steal the stage, bestowing my presence everywhere I trot. But then I’m also much more fond of teaching my writing and lit courses online, asynchronously. So, like. Both.
Dovecote
I love this word; it’s so pretty. And it’s a word for a cool old practice of sort-of-farming: that of keeping pigeons and doves in a multiplex birdhouse near the home, or attached to it. I don’t know why the sound of the word appeals to me so much but it does. Maybe I was a medieval dove-keeper in a past life. But suffice to say, this word did have a tendency to pop up more often than what I was actually looking for when I attempted some research on ‘house-dove.’ (And when I added ‘qi’ to the search, I got a bunch of meditation centers, which. Man, it seems to me that the proliferation of AI has made search engines rather enshittified as compared to in pre-AI Google days, know what I mean? But I digress.)
Other symbolism that flows into my head about this is the sending of the raven and then the dove to go find land in the biblical story of Noah’s Ark – sending the dove out from the floating temporary home, to go find the permanent home. The house-dove as scout? And of course the term house-dove makes me think of the mythical motif of the Princess in the Tower. You know: Rapunzel. And her ilk. Trapped in a doorless tower, until Prince Charming is able to break her out. Images of a bird kept in a cage are all over folklore and fairy tales when it come to saving-the-love-interest adventures, whether it’s a damsel or a dude in distress and in need of rescuing. (See my intro to the Problematic Badass Female Tropes for more in that vein.)
Here’s a strange question: are there any real house doves left these days since the pandemic forced us all inside? Did the enforced and necessary stay-at-home period traumatize even our introverts enough that true house-doves are a thing of the past? More: Do we still keep our doves/women/partners/children in towers like Rapunzel?
What were the doves (and ravens?) we sent out to find mana when we were all trapped inside our own personal arks during the pandemic lockdown? I have a theory that they were represented by food and booze deliveries. Or maybe the birds were virtual: Teams, Zoom, and TikTok sendings? What do you think?