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Re: Fw: [NABOKV-L] Powerful Kramler: Nabokov decoded ...
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"STANG"
Go here for a list of 50 quotations in which the word "stang" appears, including several from Gulliver's Travels and other works that VN was sure to know:
http://www.wordnik.com/words/stang/examples
I have no doubt that the true truffle snorters among us could, if he/she set his/her mind to it, relate every one of these quotations to VN's choice of the word (but, as Stan suggests, to what purpose?). One of the most interesting uses is in the expression "riding the stang," which is explained here:
http://www.answers.com/topic/riding-the-stang
and, in far more colorful language, here:
http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/answers/articles5/X0017_Ride_the_wild_STANG.html
But isn't it possible that VN (or Shade), faced with the difficult problem of finding a suitable one-syllable word at this point, simply made the best of a bad situation?
As for Webster's Second, it is online and free at
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/
I don't have my own treasured copy of the dictionary handy at the moment, so I'm not sure whether the online edition (1913) is the same as the one VN would have used.
Jim Twiggs
________________________________
From: "b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz" <b.boyd@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Fri, January 15, 2010 1:50:12 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Powerful Kramler: Nabokov decoded ...
Sorry to be a party-pooper, but we know what Nabokov's preferred English dictionary was, so it seems pointless to decide that this or that word he has used is a coinage, when it's in Webster's Second.
There, there are 5 different entries for "stang," and the first sense of the first entry is "A pole, rail, or beam."
"Larvarium" it defines as "A box or cage for the rearing of insect larvae."
As far as I know it is still possible to obtain old copies of Webster's Second International Unabridged at ridiculously low prices from Merriam-Webster.
Brian Boyd
On 15/01/2010, at 9:20 AM, jansymello wrote:
Gary Lipon to jansymello [I mean, the substantive "Stange" meaning "perch,"] I don't get an entry for "stange" meaning "perch" in thefreedictionary.com, my first goto source for words, only a town in Norway. So I'm confused as to what you mean...The peculiar thing is that "rail" and "stang" are both monosyllabic and thus work equally well in terms of prosody.Surely VN would have considered a common word like "rail"; thus must of really intended "stang"...
>
>JM: I originally checked in the Oxford Duden Dictionary (German), but on-line there is Stange, indicating perch, stick,rail...: Stange Stange f , -, -n
>a (=langer, runder Stab) pole
>(=Querstab) bar
>(=Ballettstange) barre
>(=Kleiderstange, Teppichstange) rail
>(=Gardinenstange, Leiste für Treppenläufer) rod
>(=Vogelstange) perch
>(=Hühnerstange) perch, roost
>(=Gebissstange) bit, (Hunt) (=Schwanz) brush
>(=Geweihteil) branch (of antlers) (fig) (=dünner Mensch) beanpole inf
>b (=länglicher Gegenstand) stick
>eine Stange Zigaretten a carton of 200 cigarettes
>
>c (=zylinderförmiges Glas) tall glass
>d (Redewendungen) ein Anzug von der Stange a suit off the peg (Brit) or rack (US)
>von der Stange kaufen to buy off the peg (Brit) or rack (US)
>jdn bei der Stange halten inf to keep or hold sb
>bei der Stange bleiben inf to stick at it inf
>jdm die Stange halten inf to stick up for sb inf , to stand up for sb
>eine (schöne or ganze) Stange Geld inf a tidy sum inf
>
>Translation Stange in the German-English Collins dictionary
>Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
>Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without
exception, are
read by both co-editors.
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
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
Go here for a list of 50 quotations in which the word "stang" appears, including several from Gulliver's Travels and other works that VN was sure to know:
http://www.wordnik.com/words/stang/examples
I have no doubt that the true truffle snorters among us could, if he/she set his/her mind to it, relate every one of these quotations to VN's choice of the word (but, as Stan suggests, to what purpose?). One of the most interesting uses is in the expression "riding the stang," which is explained here:
http://www.answers.com/topic/riding-the-stang
and, in far more colorful language, here:
http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/answers/articles5/X0017_Ride_the_wild_STANG.html
But isn't it possible that VN (or Shade), faced with the difficult problem of finding a suitable one-syllable word at this point, simply made the best of a bad situation?
As for Webster's Second, it is online and free at
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/
I don't have my own treasured copy of the dictionary handy at the moment, so I'm not sure whether the online edition (1913) is the same as the one VN would have used.
Jim Twiggs
________________________________
From: "b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz" <b.boyd@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Fri, January 15, 2010 1:50:12 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Powerful Kramler: Nabokov decoded ...
Sorry to be a party-pooper, but we know what Nabokov's preferred English dictionary was, so it seems pointless to decide that this or that word he has used is a coinage, when it's in Webster's Second.
There, there are 5 different entries for "stang," and the first sense of the first entry is "A pole, rail, or beam."
"Larvarium" it defines as "A box or cage for the rearing of insect larvae."
As far as I know it is still possible to obtain old copies of Webster's Second International Unabridged at ridiculously low prices from Merriam-Webster.
Brian Boyd
On 15/01/2010, at 9:20 AM, jansymello wrote:
Gary Lipon to jansymello [I mean, the substantive "Stange" meaning "perch,"] I don't get an entry for "stange" meaning "perch" in thefreedictionary.com, my first goto source for words, only a town in Norway. So I'm confused as to what you mean...The peculiar thing is that "rail" and "stang" are both monosyllabic and thus work equally well in terms of prosody.Surely VN would have considered a common word like "rail"; thus must of really intended "stang"...
>
>JM: I originally checked in the Oxford Duden Dictionary (German), but on-line there is Stange, indicating perch, stick,rail...: Stange Stange f , -, -n
>a (=langer, runder Stab) pole
>(=Querstab) bar
>(=Ballettstange) barre
>(=Kleiderstange, Teppichstange) rail
>(=Gardinenstange, Leiste für Treppenläufer) rod
>(=Vogelstange) perch
>(=Hühnerstange) perch, roost
>(=Gebissstange) bit, (Hunt) (=Schwanz) brush
>(=Geweihteil) branch (of antlers) (fig) (=dünner Mensch) beanpole inf
>b (=länglicher Gegenstand) stick
>eine Stange Zigaretten a carton of 200 cigarettes
>
>c (=zylinderförmiges Glas) tall glass
>d (Redewendungen) ein Anzug von der Stange a suit off the peg (Brit) or rack (US)
>von der Stange kaufen to buy off the peg (Brit) or rack (US)
>jdn bei der Stange halten inf to keep or hold sb
>bei der Stange bleiben inf to stick at it inf
>jdm die Stange halten inf to stick up for sb inf , to stand up for sb
>eine (schöne or ganze) Stange Geld inf a tidy sum inf
>
>Translation Stange in the German-English Collins dictionary
>Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
>Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without
exception, are
read by both co-editors.
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
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/