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Re: Ardis tap water
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Re: [NABOKV-L] Ardis tap waterStan Kelly-Bootle:Thanks, Alexey, for the fascinating word-plays/links. Also for quoting some fine-flowing Nabokovian discourses, with hallmark rarities (Webster III?) tickling my Brit ears:utile = archaic: advantageous... A usage worthy of comment: the driver says of the road “It abuts at the forest.” Pedants would normally say (transitively!) “It abuts the forest,” since the “at” is already embedded in the prefix “a-” (via Latin “ad”) of “a-but.” Since “it abuts” is uncommonly posh (compared with “it borders”), one is left wondering why the driver’s grammar is rather peccably colloquial?
Jansy Mello: Couldn't "utile" be some sort of gallicisme?
The wiktionary, on "abut," also suggests a subreptitious French influence :"...From Middle English abutten, from Old French abouter, aboter (“to border on”); compare French aboutir, and also abuter; a (Latin ad) + Old French boter, buter (“to push”). Compare French bout (“end”), and but (“end, purpose”)." Perhaps, like Homais, a driver also nods.
btw: Irony...The incorrectly named Brittany (from McEwan's Atonement) is called Briony.
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Jansy Mello: Couldn't "utile" be some sort of gallicisme?
The wiktionary, on "abut," also suggests a subreptitious French influence :"...From Middle English abutten, from Old French abouter, aboter (“to border on”); compare French aboutir, and also abuter; a (Latin ad) + Old French boter, buter (“to push”). Compare French bout (“end”), and but (“end, purpose”)." Perhaps, like Homais, a driver also nods.
btw: Irony...The incorrectly named Brittany (from McEwan's Atonement) is called Briony.
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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