Duly noted Jim but, alas, after my postings using the 1913 version. Can I mention another problem with this (and most other) online version. It allows searches by headword, but my project (seeking embedded synonyms) needs a total-content search. Switch to UNIX tools beckons.
What I recall from Webster history: Webster III was a great shock to many dumping many VN-treasured archaic words from the 1934 Webster II, and adding hundreds of upstart vulg. derog. words that offended the bourgeoisie. BB might confirm that VN shunned Webster III, and may have written a strong opinion against it.
I’m still pondering your dislike of stang in the PF context. My judgment is coloured by the view (unpopular with many Nabokovians) that Shade is a lousy poet, presented as such via brilliantly-balanced but mean-low-down parody by VN.
Speaking of non-standard (but never egregiously bad) grammar: the impeccable JANSY used the construction ‘should of’ or ‘would of’ when the rules prefer ‘should have’ and ‘would have.’ I only mention it because it aroused some debate on another list I infest. The ‘of’ has been defended because it’s so common, and derives from the fact that in speech it is not easy to hear the difference between ‘should of’ and ‘should have’ (indeed there may not be a real phonetic difference). Even on the BBC one hears the next stage in the DEATH of GOODER English: ‘I shudder [shudda] been more careful.’
SKB
On 16/01/2010 17:56, "James Twiggs" <jtwigzz@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
Dear List,
In referring you to the online Webster's Unabridged Dictionary in my last posting, I gave out some misleading information. The online version is from 1913. As Stephen Blackwell has pointed out to me, there was a 1934 version, commonly known as Webster's Second. Stephen and I believe that this is the version that VN would have been using. If we're wrong about this, I hope somebody will provide further information.
I apologize for this mistake. As for the egregious grammatical error in that same posting, I am properly embarrassed.
The more I think about the word "stang" in Shade's poem, the odder it seems as the word of choice, in that context, for either Shade or VN.
Jim Twiggs