In Chapter 8 of The Hobbit – “Flies and spiders”, Bilbo attacks the giant spiders holding the dwarves captive. As he does so he sings an insulting song, calling the spiders “Attercop” and “Tomnoddy”. “No spider has ever liked being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course is insulting to anybody”. But why did the spiders take offence at these harmless words?

“Attercop” was originally just the Old English word for “spider” and is still very occasionally heard in Yorkshire dialect today. The first recorded written reference comes from about 1000. Nothing much there to annoy a spider! However, the word has another, derived, meaning of a venomous, malignant, ill-natured person. This use of the word first appears in the sixteenth century.

“Tomnoddy” is merely a stronger form of the sixteenth century “noddy” or fool, as in the more common “Tomfool”.

No wonder the spiders were not happy!