"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
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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.