DEFINITIONS FOR LIVING HISTORY

For Kael Ball whose comment on farb an acronyms caused me to finish this post!

Some of these terms you might be familiar with. Others unfamiliar. As Lynn Bloom says, “Everyone new to a group…has to learn its code, in language and in behavior, as part of the initiation process. This is how we enter and become part of a discourse community.” Here are a few terms that that you will encounter in reenactments:

AO

Authenticity (or Accuracy) Officer, who is given the power to decide on the historical accuracy of an item.

Boffer

Mock combat with foam weapons.

Farb

Anything inaccurate, first seen in American Civil War reenacting in the 1960s. Origins are uncertain, but it may come from the phrase, “Far Be It for Me to Criticize, But…”

First Person

An impassions where you pretend to be from another time and behave in that manner, so that you do not know anything that happened after the date of your impression.

Frog and Feathers

French and Indian.

Jubbly

Anything not period accurate. The word originated as the name of a British orange drink in the 1950s, and it was later popularized as street slang. One theory is that its use in reenacting described someone who dresses as though they came from a jumble (yard) sale.

Kit

The possessions of a reenactor that might have been owned by his impression. A kit may be dictated by military regulations or merely be objects that a person of a particular time might have owned. Battle kit is a term often used to describe a fighter’s uniform, armor and arms.

MoP

Member of the Public; a spectator.

Period

i) An abstract term referring to historically authentic dress, mannerisms, etc.; ii) being in the style of an historical period.

Ramada Ranger

A reenactor who stays in a hotel instead of camping.

Reenactorism

Modern invention that is accepted and promoted as accurate to the period though if it is not.

Retro Research

Creating an artifact without doing research and then trying to find documentation that will justify it.

Ropeline

i) The real or imaginary line between which everything should be historically accurate.
Public Hours; ii) the times when the historical accuracy behind the Ropeline must be adhered.

Second Person

An impression where you present yourself as a person from another time, but you can break impression to comment on things that happened after the date of your impression. Also knownas a ghost impression.

Thenty

Accurate, coming from the term “authentic.”

Third Person

An impression where you present yourself as a person of the present and, therefore, know things after the date of your impression.

Three-Foot (or Three-Foot etc.) Rule

Something seems accurate at three feet, or any designated distance.