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Re: Last remarks on Skoramis
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Stan K-Bootle: NO, Jansy! VN’s usage is correct. “Mollitious” in English is an adjectival form of the noun “mollitude.” To complicate matters[...} we can go from adj. “mollitious” to verb “mollitate” and yet another noun, “mollitation.” [...]What makes English grammar so divinely agonizing is that adjectives often appear as noun-like. I can write “Mollitude will prevail!”or“The mollitious will prevail!”
JM: Is there a prevailing "mollitiousness", too?
Anyway, what does "mollittude" mean in VN 's sentence ( the luxury and mollitude of my first Villa Venus) and... would it be correct to go a step further and associate "luxury" to its Latin origin, ie, to what is voluptuous and licentious?
btw: when I sent the example of "vagalume", in reply to Victor Fet's posting ( firefly, "wandering light"), I forgot to mention that it is an euphemism for unpoetic "cagalume" ( light-shitter).
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EDNOTE. I suggest that we hereby end this thread, which although interesting seems to be moving away from VN. -- SES]
SKB to Mary B/A Bouazza: thanks for the clarifications. All that remains is to pin down exactly what Aristophanes meant, in context, and what L&S mean
by “night stool!” Browning & VN used skoramis as a donnish euphemism for “piss-pot” in lieu of the mundane euphemisms “commode” or “chamber-pot,”
Mary’s note that skoramis is related to skor/skatos (dung/faecal) [...]All of which warns us of language’s “slings and arrows.” And of the problems involved defining “euphemisms” and “pornography.” There’s nothing inherently obscene or “illiterate” in the Anglo-Saxon versions. To VN’s ears,though, the shorter, blunter forms seemed lazy, uncreative, and almost deliberately belligerently “in your face.”
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JM: Is there a prevailing "mollitiousness", too?
Anyway, what does "mollittude" mean in VN 's sentence ( the luxury and mollitude of my first Villa Venus) and... would it be correct to go a step further and associate "luxury" to its Latin origin, ie, to what is voluptuous and licentious?
btw: when I sent the example of "vagalume", in reply to Victor Fet's posting ( firefly, "wandering light"), I forgot to mention that it is an euphemism for unpoetic "cagalume" ( light-shitter).
......................................................................................................................................
EDNOTE. I suggest that we hereby end this thread, which although interesting seems to be moving away from VN. -- SES]
SKB to Mary B/A Bouazza: thanks for the clarifications. All that remains is to pin down exactly what Aristophanes meant, in context, and what L&S mean
by “night stool!” Browning & VN used skoramis as a donnish euphemism for “piss-pot” in lieu of the mundane euphemisms “commode” or “chamber-pot,”
Mary’s note that skoramis is related to skor/skatos (dung/faecal) [...]All of which warns us of language’s “slings and arrows.” And of the problems involved defining “euphemisms” and “pornography.” There’s nothing inherently obscene or “illiterate” in the Anglo-Saxon versions. To VN’s ears,though, the shorter, blunter forms seemed lazy, uncreative, and almost deliberately belligerently “in your face.”
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
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Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/