Dogfish Juggling

I posted this on rec.juggling and decided I wanted some sort of archive. This seemed the most appropriate place. I may come back in and polish that a bit.It seems like from around 1300 or so to "juggle" meant almost exclusively to "play conjuring tricks, cheat or deceive." That understanding and usage seems to have persisted well into the mid 1700′s and indeed persisted in some cases into the 1800′s, although by the 1800′s the idea of juggling as a sort of entertainment was more widespread. It is interesting to note that the idea of juggling as something which entertained seemed to exists during this entire period, it was just much less common. While as early as 1600 one could "juggle before the king" without running the risk of coming up a head or two short, the association between juggling (the word not the act) and witchcraft predominated the english language for centuries. It seems like around 1800 or so the word changed in two ways. 1) the idea of a juggler as a jester (i.e. one who entertains) became much more prominent. this new understanding probably has a lot to do with the decline in the belief in "witchcraft" so it seems pretty natural to me. the "wizards" and conjurers who were previously burned at the stake were beginning to be understood as. . . well not evil, magic casting beings of a supernatural and terrifying power and just dudes. 2) instead of using juggling to mean some form of deception or chance with a decidedly and predetermined evil intent, the term began to mean simply to change or manipulate. Not until nearly the turn of the century (around 1890′s) was juggling used to refer to what we in rec.juggling know as "juggling" (To toss and catch several objects continuously, keeping at least one of them in the air while handling the others. Also, to toss an object, etc., from hand to hand with dexterity; (of two or more persons) to toss an object, etc., back and forth between them.) we can see this usage in the 1892 Routlege’s Book of Cirucs, "All Acrobats can juggle. . .  It is very difficult to juggle with articles of various weights at teh same time" Darwin, who’s life spanned the bulk of the 1800′s, lived at a time when the word "juggling" was at its most ephemeral. Probably late in his life the term would have begun to be applied to prop manipulation, but the usage in this case of jugglery, as Paul noted, most likely refereed to the magical conjuring and deception of his compass and matches.  the whole thread is here