the OED says that "melly" is an archaic word for "honey." However, in context, it looks like Carlyle meant melee. Very odd for him to spell it this way.
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution -- it's the name of a fashionable London social club of the time. "An Almack's Masquerade is not nothing; in more genial ages, your Christmas Guisings, Feasts of the Ass, Abbots of Unreason, were a considerable something: since sport they were; as Almacks may still be sincere wish for sport."
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution: "Astonished Europe rings with the mystery for ten months; sees only lie unfold itself from lie; corruption among the lofty and the low, gulosity, credulity, imbecility, strength nowhere but in the hunger. "
". . .a ground plan of rococo inspiration: which is to say, portals with flying ramparts, mock-Tudor moldings, tympanums and astragals, plus (this was truly innovatory) a floridly imposing wing flanking it with its own gothic quad." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
". . .a fairly lowly position but which had its own distinction, won by Hassan on account of his polymathic study of an almost unknown tumulus (and nobody who did know it could work out its import) from an oppidum civium romanorum which a scholar from Munich, a Judaist in flight from Austria's Anschluss, had found in diggings at Thugga (or, as it's nowadays known, Dougga)." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
". . .attacking that Bassalian titan, attacking it again and again, puncturing its invincibility, implanting in it, again and again, a harpoon as sharp as a bistoury. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
"You, Ishmail, phthisic pawn, glutton for musty old manuscripts, puny scribbling runt, martyr to a myriad of sulks, doldrums and mulligrubs, you who lit out, packing just a smock, four shirts and a cotton hanky in your bag. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
"You, Ishmail, phthisic pawn, glutton for musty old manuscripts, puny scribbling runt, martyr to a myriad of sulks, doldrums and mulligrubs, you who lit out, packing just a smock, four shirts and a cotton hanky in your bag. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
"Grooms, spivs and turf officials stroll to and fro; at a kiosk a young lad is shouting "Paris-Turf! Git your Paris-Turf!"; touts offload dubious tips and long columns start forming in front of casinos and gambling halls." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
". . .finds him, a fat, slobbish layabout, rocking to and fro in a rococo rocking chair, lolling back on a cushion of soft kapok quilting. . " Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
". . .a monkish cot to doss down on with torn pillows and a quilt fully of scummy stains. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
". . .a bow window of milky-murky glass giving off a dark and turbid glow, a pallid photocopy of sunlight. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
". . .and in Honolulu his fifth, Urbain, was a victim of hirudination, slain by a gigantic worm sucking his blood, totally draining him, so that as many as 20 transfusions would fail to bring him back." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
". . .in Milan his fourth, Odilon, Luchino Visconti's right-hand man at La Scala, had a particularly bony portion of turbot catch in his throat. . " Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
"Mounting Sturmi, with its saffron housing and its caparison of indigo, and illustrious in his own gold strappings inlaid with opal. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
"Sibylla, though, was so fond of Willigis, fond of him with a passion that sat oddly with kinship, that sororal adoration would gradually blossom into carnal lust. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
"This incision in his olfactory tract producing a naso-dilation, Cochin profits from it by quickly scarifying Vowl's partition with a surgical pin, scraping it with a burin. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
"or a giant grampus, baiting Jonah, trapping Cain, haunting Ahab; all avatars of that vital quiddity which no ocular straining will pull into focus. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
"The discobolus, she continued, who presently appeared on the anxious trot to ask the bloody impressionist and the screaming Madame Monet if they had seen his quoit was a bassetted and spatted Englishman whose carp's mouth and plaid knickerbockers sprang from the pages of Jerome K. Jerome."
--Guy Davenport in "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg"
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
"And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne."
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
"And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne."
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
"And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne."
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
"And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne."
"The discobolus, she continued, who presently appeared on the anxious trot to ask the bloody impressionist and the screaming Madame Monet if they had seen his quoit was a bassetted and spatted Englishman whose carp's mouth and plaid knickerbockers sprang from the pages of Jerome K. Jerome."
--Guy Davenport in "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg"
"The discobolus, she continued, who presently appeared on the anxious trot to ask the bloody impressionist and the screaming Madame Monet if they had seen his quoit was a bassetted and spatted Englishman whose carp's mouth and plaid knickerbockers sprang from the pages of Jerome K. Jerome."
--Guy Davenport in "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg"
"Rilkean angels, complex essences in a wind of light, fibrous with articulate memories, accidental events enriched into significance, a cherished smile, a long afternoon, a concupiscent dream, disappointments salvaged by courage, are the quiring that Fourier saw as a destiny of attractions." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
"Rilkean angels, complex essences in a wind of light, fibrous with articulate memories, accidental events enriched into significance, a cherished smile, a long afternoon, a concupiscent dream, disappointments salvaged by courage, are the quiring that Fourier saw as a destiny of attractions." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
". . .Catholicism cretinized French children (one knows what his hyperbole means, our fundamentalist doppers do the same), so it is now the young who cretinize themselves." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
"Its plangencies cross philosophy at angles one might, with luck, trace." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport. Meant here, I think, similar to "reverberations"
". . .Heer rediscovers in this same Senonian bed the Eocene plant Sapotacites reticulatus, which he described in the Sachs-Thuringen lignite beds." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
"The organic law of vegetable growth is the surd towards which the series one-half, one-third, two-fifths, three-eighths, and so one, approximates." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
"Crickets creaking trills so loud we had to raise our voices, even on the beach down from the cycladic wall under the yellow spongy dry scrub with spiky stars of flowers." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
"This trail was blazed back in the century's teens by a knickerbockered and tweed-capped comitatus from Yale, carrying on a tradition from Raphael Pumpelly and Percy Wallace and Steel MacKaye, from Thoreau and Burroughs: a journey with no purpose but to be in the wilderness, to be in its silence, to be together deep among its trees and valleys and heights." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
"The sampan pilot from Siogama to Ishinomaki, the postman galloping from Kyoto to Ogaki, what do they travel but time?" from "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
from Tate Collection website: "The term ‘flenite’ used in the title was invented by Jacob Epstein to refer to the flinty hardness of the stone used, actually a material called serpentine."
"Sat on the floor at Hulme's widow's while he talked bolt upright in his North Country farmer's body and stuttered through his admiration and phlegmatic defense of Epstein's flenite pieces, so African as to be more Soninke made than Soninke derived. . ." from "The Bowmen of Shu" by Guy Davenport
Comments by jaime_d
jaime_d commented on the word defalcated
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word Cimmerian
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word slobber
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word guggle
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word Lanterne
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution. Meaning: a lamp post on the street, used by Parisian mobs to string up the latest object of their fury.
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word melly
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
the OED says that "melly" is an archaic word for "honey." However, in context, it looks like Carlyle meant melee. Very odd for him to spell it this way.
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word peculation
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word Almack
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution -- it's the name of a fashionable London social club of the time. "An Almack's Masquerade is not nothing; in more genial ages, your Christmas Guisings, Feasts of the Ass, Abbots of Unreason, were a considerable something: since sport they were; as Almacks may still be sincere wish for sport."
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word foisonless
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word obtestation
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word regrater
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word jurant
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word bandog
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word minatory
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word tripudiate
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word disembogue
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word caprioling
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word malison
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word vinaigrous
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word mixtiform
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word brabble
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word frondent
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word jupe
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word sabot
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word gyved
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word Kilkenny Cats
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word gerund-grinding
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word Sanhedrim
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word buckram
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word fencible
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word acetous
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word alegar
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word atrabiliar
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word Sapphic-Werterean
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word fuliginous
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word furibund
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word tile
the great mystery of From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution: what does he mean by "tile-colored" (like "tile-colored beard"?)
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word suburb
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution "the Suburb" - meaning something like a place of inferior or debased habits of life.
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word glebe
From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word gulosity
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution: "Astonished Europe rings with the mystery for ten months; sees only lie unfold itself from lie; corruption among the lofty and the low, gulosity, credulity, imbecility, strength nowhere but in the hunger. "
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word edacity
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word eleutheromania
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word esurient
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word cynosure
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word plethorically
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word acidulent
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word solecism
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word higgle
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word viaticum
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word fingent
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word chaffering
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word manumission
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word shaveling
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word dizened
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word poltroonery
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011
jaime_d commented on the word astragals
". . .a ground plan of rococo inspiration: which is to say, portals with flying ramparts, mock-Tudor moldings, tympanums and astragals, plus (this was truly innovatory) a floridly imposing wing flanking it with its own gothic quad." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word tumulus
". . .a fairly lowly position but which had its own distinction, won by Hassan on account of his polymathic study of an almost unknown tumulus (and nobody who did know it could work out its import) from an oppidum civium romanorum which a scholar from Munich, a Judaist in flight from Austria's Anschluss, had found in diggings at Thugga (or, as it's nowadays known, Dougga)." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word columbarium
"Hassan Ibn Abbou's tomb is in a columbarium in Antony, a suburb of Paris. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word bistoury
". . .attacking that Bassalian titan, attacking it again and again, puncturing its invincibility, implanting in it, again and again, a harpoon as sharp as a bistoury. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word rorqual
". . .his sailors had torn off a giant rorqual's jaw. . " Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word mulligrubs
"You, Ishmail, phthisic pawn, glutton for musty old manuscripts, puny scribbling runt, martyr to a myriad of sulks, doldrums and mulligrubs, you who lit out, packing just a smock, four shirts and a cotton hanky in your bag. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word phthisic
"You, Ishmail, phthisic pawn, glutton for musty old manuscripts, puny scribbling runt, martyr to a myriad of sulks, doldrums and mulligrubs, you who lit out, packing just a smock, four shirts and a cotton hanky in your bag. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word amaryllis
"Through this bar wafts a languorous aroma of amaryllis." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word viridian
". . .Olga, a vision of Pariso-colonial chic in a viridian Arab tunic." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word spivs
"Grooms, spivs and turf officials stroll to and fro; at a kiosk a young lad is shouting "Paris-Turf! Git your Paris-Turf!"; touts offload dubious tips and long columns start forming in front of casinos and gambling halls." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word kapok
". . .finds him, a fat, slobbish layabout, rocking to and fro in a rococo rocking chair, lolling back on a cushion of soft kapok quilting. . " Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word doss
". . .a monkish cot to doss down on with torn pillows and a quilt fully of scummy stains. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word turbid
". . .a bow window of milky-murky glass giving off a dark and turbid glow, a pallid photocopy of sunlight. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word hirudination
". . .and in Honolulu his fifth, Urbain, was a victim of hirudination, slain by a gigantic worm sucking his blood, totally draining him, so that as many as 20 transfusions would fail to bring him back." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word turbot
". . .in Milan his fourth, Odilon, Luchino Visconti's right-hand man at La Scala, had a particularly bony portion of turbot catch in his throat. . " Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word fustian
"a farrago without fustian" Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word simoon
"a simoon in a long Finnish corridor. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word lancinating
"But a lancinating agony gnaws at my vitals." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word caparison
"Mounting Sturmi, with its saffron housing and its caparison of indigo, and illustrious in his own gold strappings inlaid with opal. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word sororal
"Sibylla, though, was so fond of Willigis, fond of him with a passion that sat oddly with kinship, that sororal adoration would gradually blossom into carnal lust. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word burin
"This incision in his olfactory tract producing a naso-dilation, Cochin profits from it by quickly scarifying Vowl's partition with a surgical pin, scraping it with a burin. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word quiddity
"or a giant grampus, baiting Jonah, trapping Cain, haunting Ahab; all avatars of that vital quiddity which no ocular straining will pull into focus. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word confocal
"Thus, on occasion, a sort of parabola, not fully confocal in form. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition
August 11, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word vavassors
meaning something like feudal tenants, it seems
January 28, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word discobolus
"The discobolus, she continued, who presently appeared on the anxious trot to ask the bloody impressionist and the screaming Madame Monet if they had seen his quoit was a bassetted and spatted Englishman whose carp's mouth and plaid knickerbockers sprang from the pages of Jerome K. Jerome."
--Guy Davenport in "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg"
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the list davenport
Thanks for the tip, socjan, I will definitely check that out!
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word shindy
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word ravelment
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word linnet
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word galliard
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
"And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne."
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word cassowary
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
"And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne."
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word hatchel
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
"And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne."
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word pollskepped
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport:
"And on a fine English day in the high Victorian year 1868, the year of the first bicycle race and the Trades Union Congress at Manchester, of The Moonstone and The Ring and the Book and of the siege of Magdela, four men gathered at Ashley House in London, a house leafy with Virginia creeper, its interior harmoniously dark and bright, like an English forest, dark with corners and doors and halls, with mahogany and teak and drapes as red as cherries, bright with windows, Indian brass, and lamps like moons, Lord Lindsay pollskepped with the hatchels of a cassowary, Lord Adare whose face looked like a silver teapot, and the galliard Captain Wynne."
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word franion
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word salver
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word apteryx
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word wattle
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word bassetted
"The discobolus, she continued, who presently appeared on the anxious trot to ask the bloody impressionist and the screaming Madame Monet if they had seen his quoit was a bassetted and spatted Englishman whose carp's mouth and plaid knickerbockers sprang from the pages of Jerome K. Jerome."
--Guy Davenport in "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg"
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word quoit
"The discobolus, she continued, who presently appeared on the anxious trot to ask the bloody impressionist and the screaming Madame Monet if they had seen his quoit was a bassetted and spatted Englishman whose carp's mouth and plaid knickerbockers sprang from the pages of Jerome K. Jerome."
--Guy Davenport in "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg"
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word asa foetida
resin used for flavoring, used to be in medicine as an antispasmotic. From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word wain
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word settles
noun - wooden benches that can be used as chests. From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word lenticular
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word bdellium
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word pennon
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word sodality
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word gryllus
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word fichu
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word weskit
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word chiasmus
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word nacelle
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word Krater
jar or vase of classical antiquity with a large mouth to mix wine and water. From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word leghorn bonnet
hat made of straw from an Italian wheat. From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word taffrail
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word inconcinnity
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word kithless
without friends or family. From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word graaf
Dutch version of a count. From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word castellum
From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word campion
From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word pullet
From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word fylfot
From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word bennu
From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word sidhe
From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word vagron
fleeting, wayward, inconsistent. From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word pickelhaube
From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word colliery
From "Haile Selassie Funeral Train" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word quincunxes
Five things in the pattern you see on a dice's 5. From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word bole
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word pellucid
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word vitrine
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word withers
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word stereopticon
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word clabber
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word pinnace
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word ictus
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word innominata
an unnamed thing. From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word tam
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word calabash
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word palatine
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word kobold
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word nisser
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word quagga
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word zinziber
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word tabard
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word baobob
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word klaxon
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word propinquity
From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word synclitic
inclined down from opposite directions. From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word chancre
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word gonfalon
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word quitch
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word turm
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word catamite
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word Mithraeum
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word azimuth
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word ensis
a sword. From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word wezand
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word mimiambus
a type of poetic meter or poem. From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word archons
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word awns
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word lecticula
small couch or litter. From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word custus
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word flange
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word umbraculum
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word ilex
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word peplon
a robe of state. From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word sistrum
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word herm
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word pease
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word marl
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word condered
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word seines
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word bodger
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word imperator
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word vastation
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word jigget
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word fremitus
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word Arvals
adjective, meaning related to a funeral dinner. From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word fitchet
A weasel. From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word gentian
from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word guidon
from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word umbrels
from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word bracts
from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word icosahedra
from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word przhevalskis
from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport. Means a small, stocky horse of central Asia Przewalski
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word pergole
from "The Richard Nixon Freischutz Rag" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word morganatic
from "That Faire Field of Enna" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word clicket
Used as a verb in "That Faire Field of Enna" by Guy Davenport. Seems to be in the sense of being in heat (especially for foxes, hares)
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word blissom
from "That Faire Field of Enna" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word goliardry
being in the tradition of 12th century wandering students who read and capered for a living
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word goliardry
from essay "Jonathan Williams" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word benison
from essay "Jonathan Williams" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word eidetic
from essay "Jonathan Williams" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word grundyism
from essay "Jonathan Williams" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the list king-dork-and-his-mispronunciation-skills
I never noticed this before. Wonderful list!
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word concupiscent
"Rilkean angels, complex essences in a wind of light, fibrous with articulate memories, accidental events enriched into significance, a cherished smile, a long afternoon, a concupiscent dream, disappointments salvaged by courage, are the quiring that Fourier saw as a destiny of attractions." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word quiring
"Rilkean angels, complex essences in a wind of light, fibrous with articulate memories, accidental events enriched into significance, a cherished smile, a long afternoon, a concupiscent dream, disappointments salvaged by courage, are the quiring that Fourier saw as a destiny of attractions." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word mesial
"Torsos bare today, brown as gingerbread, innocent navels neatly punctuating suave mesial dents." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word dopper
". . .Catholicism cretinized French children (one knows what his hyperbole means, our fundamentalist doppers do the same), so it is now the young who cretinize themselves." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word macaque
"Mouthbreathing German tourists with vacant eyes and macaque teeth clattering their goose gabble. . ." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word zamindary
a word poetically connected to tulips in "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word fugal
". . .male orgasm after fugal intensity"
from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word plangencies
"Its plangencies cross philosophy at angles one might, with luck, trace." from "Apples and Pears" by Guy Davenport. Meant here, I think, similar to "reverberations"
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word lignite
". . .Heer rediscovers in this same Senonian bed the Eocene plant Sapotacites reticulatus, which he described in the Sachs-Thuringen lignite beds." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word scialytic
"And in a shatter and jig of scialytic prism-fall quiet women. . ." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word surd
"The organic law of vegetable growth is the surd towards which the series one-half, one-third, two-fifths, three-eighths, and so one, approximates." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word cycladic
I think this is meant as resembling work by the Bronze Age Cycladic people -- ancient, white, stone
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word cycladic
"Crickets creaking trills so loud we had to raise our voices, even on the beach down from the cycladic wall under the yellow spongy dry scrub with spiky stars of flowers." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word comitatus
"This trail was blazed back in the century's teens by a knickerbockered and tweed-capped comitatus from Yale, carrying on a tradition from Raphael Pumpelly and Percy Wallace and Steel MacKaye, from Thoreau and Burroughs: a journey with no purpose but to be in the wilderness, to be in its silence, to be together deep among its trees and valleys and heights." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word provender
"We had provender for a fortnight in the wilderness. . ." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word sampan
"The sampan pilot from Siogama to Ishinomaki, the postman galloping from Kyoto to Ogaki, what do they travel but time?" from "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word flenite
from Tate Collection website: "The term ‘flenite’ used in the title was invented by Jacob Epstein to refer to the flinty hardness of the stone used, actually a material called serpentine."
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=4124
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word flenite
"Sat on the floor at Hulme's widow's while he talked bolt upright in his North Country farmer's body and stuttered through his admiration and phlegmatic defense of Epstein's flenite pieces, so African as to be more Soninke made than Soninke derived. . ." from "The Bowmen of Shu" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
jaime_d commented on the word fluviatile
related to a stream or river
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word bittern
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
also from from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word bream
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word mullein
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word parterre
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word tumulus
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word weir
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word cessile
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Fun fact: this adjective (meaning "yielding") is only used to modify air.
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word alburnum
the sapwood (newer, softer wood between the heartwood and the bark)
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word purling
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word equinoctial
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word plectrum
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word cisalpine
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word cisatlantic
on the near side of the Atlantic
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word buttonwood
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, probably meaning sycamore
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word kerseymere
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word autochthones
natives, or originals
from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
July 19, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word rockites
Irish term for 1812 revolutionaries
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word babes of the wood
Irish term for outlaws
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word peep-of-day boys
Irish term for Protestant insurgents
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word cottiers
Irish term for cottage dwellers
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word ribbonmen
Irish term for members of the Catholic Ribbon Society
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word redshanks
Irish term for the bare-legged
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word bogtrotters
Irish term for peasants
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word stook-of-duds
shock of rags
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word hallanshakers
Scottish term for beggars
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word satanic poetry
what we now refer to as "the Romantics"--esp. Byron
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word aesthetic tea
an intellectual salon-type thing
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word dandiacal
sarcastic term for the English Dandy type
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word blinkard
mean term for someone with bad eyesight OR used figuratively for one who lacks intellectual perception
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word magnetic sleep
hypnotism
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word gukguk
cuckoo fish?
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word proem
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word riancy
bright or smiling character
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word calenture
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word skyey
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word grand-climacteric
the year of life, usually figured to be the 63rd, supposed to be especially critical
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word ambuscade
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word desiderate
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word wiredrawn
excessively minute or subtle
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word peptic
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word hirundine
from Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus"
January 11, 2009
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