Stumbling into a Rather Appropriate Nickname

Obviously, my first name is "Dorothea." However, when I was born my brother Paul, only 15 months older than I, had a bit of trouble saying my four syllable name. He called me "Dee Dee." So that is what everyone called me. 

When I was 13, however, I went to a summer camp where the other girls in my cabin thought that "Dee Dee" looked too juvenile for a teenager. Because of this, I decided to change the spelling to "Deedy." I don't really remember why, except I thought to emulate "Kathy," or "Patty," or "Judy," etc.

It wasn't until I was MUCH older that I realized that the word "Deedy" has an actual meaning. Or it used to. In England.

It all started when I read Jane Austen's novel Emma for the umpteenth time.

Chapter 10 opens thusly:

The appearance of the little sitting-room as they entered, was tranquillity itself; Mrs. Bates, deprived of her usual employment, slumbering on one side of the fire, Frank Churchill, at a table near her, most deedily occupied about her spectacles, and Jane Fairfax, standing with her back to them, intent on her pianoforte.

Of course, first I chuckled, because it was obvious to those privy to their secret relatioship that Frank and Jane, for once unchaperoned because of her grandmother's nap, had been doing Something Else but quickly took a more innocent pose.

Then I thought, "Whoa. Deedily??" 

That sent me straight to the dictionary, and here's what I found (these are, of course, modern internet versions of what I found in the late 20th century).

Definition of deedily:

dialectal, chiefly England

: ACTIVELY, INDUSTRIOUSLY, EARNESTLY

Hmmm. From there I sped to the adjective form. . .

So. At least in archaic British English, Deedy actually has a meaning (possibly based on "full of deeds").

 So take your pick: industrious, active, earnest, serious, hard-working, busy, eager, tireless, industrious, or effective. 

Whew. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

But I must admit, at least some of these words do actually apply to me. (Not sure about "serious," "effective," and one or two others.)

However, it was after I learned about my nickname's meaning that a really cool thing happened.

I met Nigel Nicolson. son of Virginia Woolf's lover, the British writer/gardener Vita Sackville-West. He was the president of the Kent branch of the Jane Austen Society at the time, and a distinguished author, publisher, and Jane Austen scholar.

I was on a tour with the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) when I met Mr. Nicolson at Godmersham. (This was the Kent estate that Jane Austen's brother, Edward, inherited from his adoptive parents).

I had a nametag on identifying me as a JASNA member, and "DEEDY" was written on it in large letters. Mr. Nicolson looked at it, then looked at me. 

"I like your name," he said.

Right then I decided that I like it, too.

Regards,

Dorothea (AKA Deedy) Jensen 

          Nigel Nicolson at the "Garden Front" of Godmersham