Kevin's Watch

I would for the phrase "like a pile of thetic rubble" from TIW. How a pile of rubble can be thetic I cannot imagine, but hey.

I voted for ambergrise, because one of my very favorite sentences in all of TCTC is unambergrised by the promise of any uncorrupt end. Does anyone remember it being used anywhere else? And does anyone know what the heck it means? I was never able to find anything other than that whale thing.

I think the key is not just that ambergris is some waxy excretion of a sperm whale's intestine , and not just that it is used in the manufacture of perfume , but what it does to the perfume. According to the American Heritage Dictionary (via Dictionary.com)

A waxy grayish substance formed in the intestines of sperm whales and found floating at sea or washed ashore. It is added to perfumes to slow down the rate of evaporation

It's that last bit that brings meaning to the Donaldson's sentence. So in other words "not slowed or throttled back even with the knowledge that in the end they would be corrupt(ed)"

Searching for other uses of "ambergrised" I came across this at www.ansible.demon.uk in the "Ask Aunty Agonistes" section

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In a recent column you warned against overindulgence in Stephen R.Donaldson. Please lucubrate that I, argute with beneficent mansuetude and analystic refulgence, have made my preterite way eight times through all six sapid, clinquant volumes of the fulvous "Thomas Covenant" agglomeration without ill effects, not even surquedry or caducity. You are just an exigent cynosure of unambergrised malison. Despite your hurling that flinching warning like a bayamo-sped jerid, my lambent prose style is finer than ever: aneled, gelid, knurred, roborant and telic!

Hellfire! I can't argue with that.

I may have to waste some time at that site, it looks pretty funny.

The only hits google found were all related to Donaldson, so i think he made it up!

SS

I like roynish, meself...I always read it as sort of "meanly foxlike" as from Reynard, Renard, etc...the ur-viles and their kind had pointed ears and could run on all fours and their language was described as barking and roynish, so...I guess I made up a meaning for that one. Ameliorate is great. And atavistic. Taught a college english teacher a new word w/ that one...too bad the paper didn't have my name on it...

I went for Ambergrised. How original.

There have also always been a few of these longer words that seemed over-used and cropped up again and again and again and again in the chronicles that I kept noticing - Preternatural (TPTP) and Apotheosis (once a page in WGW, I think (heck, he even named the last section 'Apotheosis')) are the ones that spring to mind.


BTW - anyone else getting 'too soon since last post' messages every time they try to post (stupid question because you won't be able to respond - I had to post as a guest)?

Ummmm....ok....how did my post get all the way up there? y'all's was here first...ummmm....?

I voted for ambergrised.

According to the Donaldson vocabulary list, (www.cs.cornell.edu/home/wkiri/donaldson-words.html)
"ambergris is the ash-colored secretion of the sperm whale intestine (used in perfumery)"

Also there is this mention in "Arabian Nights'' in the translation of Sir Richard Francis Burton:
"Then he was served with sherbets and ambergrised coffee, and after drinking he arose and a party of black slaves came forward and clad him in the costliest of clothing, then perfumed and fumigated him."

a name for some sort of spicing process?

hebetude: A deficiency in mental and physical alertness and activity: dullness, languidness, languor, lassitude, leadenness, lethargy, listlessness, sluggishness, stupor, torpidity, torpor.

(I also really dig lassitude and torpor)

We all know that Donaldson is known for using complicated language and unusual words, especially in the Chronicles. I love it personally, although I know a lot of people find it annoying.

My poll question: what is your favorite big word in the Chronicles??

My fav: exigency.

I'd like to know where roynish is. I voted for exigency, but it says I voted for, err, something else.

Turiya Foul wrote:I'd like to know where roynish is. I voted for exigency, but it says I voted for, err, something else.

I found this site; I apologize if everyone on here knows it. It pretty much makes this thread irrelevant (oops):

www.cs.cornell.edu/home/wkiri/donaldson-words.html

Threnody and veridescent were my favorites. Chiarascuro and bonhomie (Gap series... bonus for containing the word "homie") are close behind. And intaglio.

Jen, a good friend of mine I used to work with, and I had an ongoing contest of words over IRC at work to keep ourselves amused during midshifts. Donaldson supplied me with a lot of material. One of the best words ever (gleaned from Nabokov, IIRC), callipygean. Rarity, difficulty of spelling, and great meaning.

LOL! That's a great list.

I built my vocabulary quite a bit by reading the Chrons. One of my times through, I went through with a dictionary, and looked up every word I didn't understand.

Usually, of course, I have the Atlas of the Land open while I read. Not that I lack the imagination to picture it all in my own mind, but I find it adds another dimension to the story to see someone else's interpretation of the descriptions in the book.

I voted for ambergrise, because one of my very favorite sentences in all of TCTC is unambergrised by the promise of any uncorrupt end. Does anyone remember it being used anywhere else? And does anyone know what the heck it means? I was never able to find anything other than that whale thing.

Romeo wrote:Usually, of course, I have the Atlas of the Land open while I read. Not that I lack the imagination to picture it all in my own mind, but I find it adds another dimension to the story to see someone else's interpretation of the descriptions in the book.

Oddly, I never look at the map. I do initially check it out, but I'm not at all concerned with the geography. I guess I'm the anti-Hile Troy. I know that the Haruchai come from the Westron Mountains, the Ramen are in the Plains of Ra, and all that, but I'm not concerned with where they are in relationship to each other.

Fist and Faith wrote:I voted for ambergrise, because one of my very favorite sentences in all of TCTC is unambergrised by the promise of any uncorrupt end. Does anyone remember it being used anywhere else? And does anyone know what the heck it means? I was never able to find anything other than that whale thing.

I gotta say, that's an awesome quote. I think he uses ambergrised a couple other times in the 2nd Chronicles (that's why I remembered it), although I'm not sure where, precisely.

I vote incondign, because I want an "incondign mastery over the white gold!"

Me too. I'm not proud.

unhermeneutical-- that tounge twister gets me every time

I love the word corpulent - its just an intellectual way of calling someone "fat" - I suppose "fat" didn`t have enuff letters in it.

Dromond wrote:unhermeneutical-- that tounge twister gets me every time

Wow - I didn't even notice this. Where does he use it???

Somewhere in the 2chrons...TOT or TWL, most likely TOT. I'm not far enough into WGW this rereading to have found that there...but I remember it.

Roynish was my favorite, too -- I voted for incondign because roynish wasn't on the list.

I, too, read through the Chrons once with a dictionary at my elbow. In fact (and I think I've mentioned this before -- stop me if I'm boring you...), my ultimate test for dictionary-shopping was to find a book with roynish in it.