Jansy Mello: Have I misread PF's "crapula" as a word in Zemblan? Did Kinbote mention it to indicate the OED, Burguess or...?

Barrie Akin: I bow to A. Bouazza's compendious knowledge of Burgess.But returning to PF, I assume that Kinbote was using crapula as an English word, simply because it is so romance based, whereas Zemblan words elsewhere in PF are usually germanic/nordic/slavic based.
A. Bouazza: There is no suggestion that it is a Zemblan word (although, Zemblan would have words of Latin and Greek  origin like any European language). It is a “learned” word, just like skoramis, psychopompos, parhelion etc. in the novel. Here is the context: “I still hoped there had been a mistake, and Shade would telephone. It was a bitter wait, and the only effect that the bottle of champagne I drank all alone now at this window, now at that, had on me was a bad crapula (hangover).”
 
Jansy Mello: What lead me to Zemblan was Kinbote's care to explain the word in a parenthesis and I failed to notice that Zemblan words are distinguished by means of italics (at least, in the examples that follow): "And at a picnic for international children a Zemblan moppet cried to her Japanese friend: Ufgut, ufgut, velkam ut Semblerland! (Adieu, adieu, till we meet in Zembla!)"; "I remember my Zemblan nurse telling me, a little man of six in the throes of adult insomnia: "Minnamin, Gut mag alkan, Pern dirstan" (my darling, God makes hungry, the Devil thirsty)". whom he had thought to be onhava-onhava ("far, far away")"
Since Kinbote didn't add an explanation to "skoramis, psychopompos" or "parhelia," my misreading may, perhaps, be forgiven.
Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal" Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.