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Re: squawk, gawk, and spoke (fwd)
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From: Anatoly Vorobey <mellon@pobox.com>
> From: Earl Sampson <esampson@cu.campuscwix.net> (Retired teacher of Russian
> language and literature at the University of Colorado, Boulder)
> Pronunciation aside, no one has commented on VN's unusual use of the word
> "gawk" (so unusual that people have (mis)remembered the verses with the more
> "logical" word "squawk"). I have always known the word as a verb (to stare
> gape-mouthed); my dictionaries tell me it is also a noun, but with the meaning
> "lout", not the name of a sound. My theory: VN knew very well the dictionary
> meanings of "gawk", but took the poetic license of using a word that seemed to
> him more onomatopoetically descriptive of the cry of a heron. Has anyone
> encountered "gawk" anywhere else as a name for a bird cry (or similar sound)?
How fascinating! I actually never met the word "gawk" until I read VN's
little verse, and then simply assumed, from context, that it meant some
hard of a harsh cry. Naturally, I rushed to dictionaries after reading
the message cited above. OED defines
"gawk", the verb, as "to stare or gape stupidly" and feels that it's
an American dialectism; the first citation goes back to 1785. There's
also the noun "gawk", which is possibly, but not necessarily (OED's
opinion) related etymologically to the verb, and means "an awkward
person, a fool, a simpleton". Webster's and American Heritage agree
with OED. No dictionary suggests anything that has to do with any sound.
But I don't see the explanation that Nabokov chose the word
for its sound as plausible. "gawk" doesn't sound to me anywhere close
to a heron's cry. Maybe, to put it bluntly, he just confused it with
"squawk"?
Russian speakers among us might be amused to know that Oxford
English-Russian dictionary translates the noun "gawk" as "razinya".
The verb is very sensibly translated as "glazet', pyalit' glaza na chto-libo".
--
Anatoly Vorobey,
mellon@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/
"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton
> From: Earl Sampson <esampson@cu.campuscwix.net> (Retired teacher of Russian
> language and literature at the University of Colorado, Boulder)
> Pronunciation aside, no one has commented on VN's unusual use of the word
> "gawk" (so unusual that people have (mis)remembered the verses with the more
> "logical" word "squawk"). I have always known the word as a verb (to stare
> gape-mouthed); my dictionaries tell me it is also a noun, but with the meaning
> "lout", not the name of a sound. My theory: VN knew very well the dictionary
> meanings of "gawk", but took the poetic license of using a word that seemed to
> him more onomatopoetically descriptive of the cry of a heron. Has anyone
> encountered "gawk" anywhere else as a name for a bird cry (or similar sound)?
How fascinating! I actually never met the word "gawk" until I read VN's
little verse, and then simply assumed, from context, that it meant some
hard of a harsh cry. Naturally, I rushed to dictionaries after reading
the message cited above. OED defines
"gawk", the verb, as "to stare or gape stupidly" and feels that it's
an American dialectism; the first citation goes back to 1785. There's
also the noun "gawk", which is possibly, but not necessarily (OED's
opinion) related etymologically to the verb, and means "an awkward
person, a fool, a simpleton". Webster's and American Heritage agree
with OED. No dictionary suggests anything that has to do with any sound.
But I don't see the explanation that Nabokov chose the word
for its sound as plausible. "gawk" doesn't sound to me anywhere close
to a heron's cry. Maybe, to put it bluntly, he just confused it with
"squawk"?
Russian speakers among us might be amused to know that Oxford
English-Russian dictionary translates the noun "gawk" as "razinya".
The verb is very sensibly translated as "glazet', pyalit' glaza na chto-libo".
--
Anatoly Vorobey,
mellon@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/
"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton