Stan Kelly-Bootle [ to M.R ]
...you are overlooking some basic linguistic “truths.” [...] Browning was a
prodigious linguist, a master of Latin and Greek by age 14 or so [...]
Re-”mollitude”: one must distinguish the different levels of “neologization.”
[...]Latin roots especially were borrowed and grammatically Anglicized en masse
with obvious meanings [...] But, as a separate word-forming mechanism,
we have many “rules” in English whereby parts-of-speech can be
transformed: nouns into adjectives; verbs into nouns; adjectives into
adverbs[...] I hope this observation will reduce the “argufaction” over NATURAL
variants such as “mollitude” (noun) and “mollitious” (adjective).
JM: A tropical country might
favor the frequent choice of words which describe slow-moving,
limp, lazy, soft things and their descriptive variations from
etymological "molle" into "mole" ( moleza, molejo,
manemolência; v.amolecer/mollify), in an
intuitive Latin-mood.
I prefer Browning's choice of "mollitious" (in
Portuguese it comes as a noun, in regionalistic
malicious "malemolencia) - to VN's "mollitude", as
it was rendered in ADA ( "the luxury and mollitude of my first Villa Venus".)
for which I found no equivalent in our modern popular usage or
any clear meaning ("softness"=""moleza", "molenga").
Another
strange ring in my lazy ears comes from VN's creation of
"viatic" applied to roads ( as in "Glory" and "Lolita"). We find
"viary" in this sense ( for train or car highways), whereas "viatic" has
acquired distinct meanings ( the holy-host carried by a priest to a moribund
catholic; travel expenses; small change; food stored during
travels).
Excuse me
for this comparative "argufaction" on the English rules
for "neologization", also because I have no examples of Browning's
sentences to be certain that his variations are more in "toon"
with another actual
and thriving language.
S K-B:
Jansy’s reference to literary “swans” reminds me that VN would also have
picked up from his Cambridge days the donnish-waspish limerick that was still
popular during my terms (1950-55)...
JM: Oh!
Donnish humor?