stay-at-home-ativeness

Updated: May 12, 2025

Besides the now well-worn term, the 'upper ten thousand, he is credited with the invention of 'Japonicadom, 'come-at-able, and 'stay-at-home-ativeness. One or two of his sayings may be worth quoting, such as his request for Washington Irving's blotting-book, because it was the door-mat on which the thoughts of his last book had wiped their sandals before they went in; and his remark that to ask a literary man to write a letter after his day's work was like asking a penny-postman to take a walk in the evening for the pleasure of it.

George Paston - Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century