Donaldson's Obscure Words - Official Thread

Post by **Lord Mhoram** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 3:58 pm

That's good stuff Landwaster. Awesome. I hope somebody prints that out and brings it Elohimfest. I'm sure Mr Donaldson would be thrilled by that.

Post by **Ryzel** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 7:37 pm

bourne - some kind of dwelling I think
bediezenings - (could be wrong spelling) lights of some kind
vlei - some kind of landscape feature I think

Sorry I cannot come up with more explanations. Maybe later.

Post by **W.B.** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 2:00 am

This is what I have for those words:

bourne - noun - 1. a brook or stream 2. [archaic] a limit; boundary 3. a destination; a goal 3. a domain (N.B. also spelled bourn)

bedizen - adjective - [now rare] to dress or decorate in a cheap, showy way ... so a cheap showy decoration for bed

vlei - noun - a Dutch word for marsh or wetland

I keep track of pretty much all their meanings, not just ones Donaldson uses, so for bourne for example, could be any one. I don't have a book/page number for a use of it, so I don't know.

Post by **Skyweir** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 2:04 am

i always thought preterite was simply past tense

Post by **W.B.** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 4:41 am

Until you read TCTC that's all it is.

Post by **Skyweir** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 4:43 am

Post by **Landwaster** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 4:46 am

Don't forget 'despite' ... I got corrected in an English class at school back in 1987 because SRD had corrupted my definition of 'despite'.

Post by **Variol Farseer** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 7:07 am

W.B. wrote:bourne - noun - 1. a brook or stream 2. [archaic] a limit; boundary 3. a destination; a goal 3. a domain (N.B. also spelled bourn)

In ordinary usage, the meanings are often distinguished by spelling: bourn for a stream, bourne for a border. No doubt this is because bourn is still used in a good many place-names, whereas bourne is rather poetic and archaic. Bourne would probably die out entirely were it not for the famous line from Hamlet: 'That undiscovered country from whose bourne / no traveller returns'.

In northern English and Scottish place-names, the word is often spelled burn. Cf. another famous line: 'Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire'.

(Off topic: In my own W.I.P. I have to break this rule, as I have a river called the Southbourne. This is an inadvertent pun, but one hardly worth the trouble of avoiding. Not only is it a bourn, it forms the southern border or bourne of the country in which it arises.)

Post by **Ryzel** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 9:45 am

The words bourne, bediezenings and vlei all appear in TOT when they visit the Elohim. I cannot give you page numbers but it is said that the Elohim turns the sky into a "bourne of bediezenings" and that one of them turn himself into something that looks like a vlei (that is a little earlier).

Post by **Roynish** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:00 am

In regards to preterite again. Pynchon definitely uses it as a noun to describe the people of society that have been passed over. "The preterite"
Chcek out the Pynchon website on Spermitikos Logos for some very interesting stuff.
Pynchon should be a necessary read for all you Donaldson fans.
Imagine a fantasy novel set in the reality of the end of WWII and with ridiculously obcscure references and bizzare characters.
It is not for no reason that Gravity's Rainbow is regarded as the most unread book in history (after Ulyssess of course).

Post by **Ryzel** » Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:26 am

I think we should include "bane" in the list too.

Post by **Landwaster** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:06 am

Ryzel wrote:I think we should include "bane" in the list too.

Not really an obscure word, though, is it?

Post by **Landwaster** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:15 am

Ok I just added guerson, vlei, bourne and bedizen, and added W.B.'s page as a reference.

Would still like a bit of volunteer work from the troops to take a letter each and convert some of W.B.'s entries to this format for integration. Would take some of the sting out of the workload.

Post by **Ryzel** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 7:40 pm

Landwaster wrote:
Ryzel wrote:I think we should include "bane" in the list too.
Not really an obscure word, though, is it?

That would depend on your definition of obscure. The wore does exist in norwegian and it is used, but only very rarely. So how would you define a word as obscure?

Post by **Landwaster** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 12:13 am

I would have thought 'little-known'.

But perhaps others can offer their thoughts. I'm willing to add 'bane' if there's a general concensus to do so

Post by **[Syl]** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 3:17 am

Eh, it's pretty common in English. Something being "the bane of my existence" is pretty much a cliche.

Post by **Skyweir** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 6:06 am

.. agreed

i utter it often to my black cat

lol jk

Post by **Skyweir** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 6:09 am

oh yeah and my old bomb of a car

rip

Post by **W.B.** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:24 pm

Does anyone know more exactly where "cerclean" is in TWL (chapter, the beginning words of its paragraph)? The editions I have (U.S. paperbacks) must have differet paginations, since I can't find it on that page. I also couldn't find it on a text file of the novel that I found online (what a great resource!), so perhaps it's misspelled.

Post by **Landwaster** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:14 am

hmm doesn't ring a bell ... was there a word called 'cerulean'???

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

Donaldson's Obscure Words - Official Thread