Balmorality

See also: balmorality

English

Alternative forms

• balmorality

Etymology

From Balmoral +‎ -ity, coined by George Scott-Moncrieff as the title of an essay published in Scotland in Quest of Her Youth (1932).

Noun

Balmorality (countable and uncountable, plural Balmoralities)

1. A superficial idealization of Scottish culture, especially the popularity engendered by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's enthusiasm for Scotland.
   • 1991, John R. Short, Imagined Country: Environment, Culture, and Society, →ISBN, page 74:

     The most obvious way is to buy a home in the country, or at the very least to know how to behave during a weekend in the country; and in order to play thepart, to get kitted out in green wellies, jackets, thick-soled shoes and Viyella shirts, all in a fawning copy of the Balmorality of the modern Royals.

   • 2000, Ian Mitchell, On the Trail of Queen Victoria in the Highlands, →ISBN, page xxvi:

     Barring the castle-building and Bayreuth fantasies of the mad Ludwig in Bavaria, there is nothing like it, and Balmorality has had a longer and more profound impact than the architectural dreamings of Wagner's patron, now emptied of their Wittelsbach inhabitants.

   • 2010, Tristram Hunt, Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City, →ISBN, page ii:

     At Balmoral Castle, on the banks of the Dee, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert recreated Scott's world with a kilt uniform of dubious provenance, a 'Balmorality' of Highland informality and ethical equality between master and servant (extended to quite scandalous degrees in the relationship between the Queen and John Brown), but all within the context of laird authority.

   • 2010, Denys Blakeway, The Last Dance: 1936: The Year Our Lives Changed, →ISBN:

     Although Edward loved to dress up in a kilt and have a 'blaw' on the bagpipes, he was no upholder of the great and austere tradition of 'Balmorality', which, since the castle's reconstruction by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, had come to define the essence of the British royal family.

   • 2013, Gary West, Voicing Scotland: Folk, Culture, Nation, →ISBN, page 164:

     It would rid us of our obsession with tartanry and Balmorality, and replace the kailyard fantasies with a much deeper cultural grounding.

2. An act inspired by Balmorality.
   • 1888, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch - Volume 95, page 149:

     What has come over them all ? Is this a bad day with the Balmoralities ?