Subject
Re: Bend Sinister's Rutterheds etc (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's COMMENT. Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>'s counter-offer to
my explication of RUTTERHEDs strikes me as convincing.
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Delayed Reactions Department: Don Johnson suggests (February 9) in
response to Sergey Il'yn's query about "Rutterheds" (Bend Sinister,
p. 64 in Time-Life edn) a pun on "brotherHOOD/HEAD" and "RUTerheads," i.e.
HEADs in the same RUT, and adds "If right, this English-based coinage
differs in its origin from most words in the local tongue which are
based on Germanic and Slavic roots."
Germanic and Slavic in fact seem more likely: German _Ritter_ and
Russian _rytsar'_, "knight," produce (via French _chevalier_ if you
wish) English _Cavaliers_, the royalist opponents of the Roundheads
in the English Civil War. This makes sense of the "sons of
reactionary nobles" in the context, and doesn't rule out the idea of
a brotherhood of rutting knights in a mental rut.
my explication of RUTTERHEDs strikes me as convincing.
-----------------------------------------------------
Delayed Reactions Department: Don Johnson suggests (February 9) in
response to Sergey Il'yn's query about "Rutterheds" (Bend Sinister,
p. 64 in Time-Life edn) a pun on "brotherHOOD/HEAD" and "RUTerheads," i.e.
HEADs in the same RUT, and adds "If right, this English-based coinage
differs in its origin from most words in the local tongue which are
based on Germanic and Slavic roots."
Germanic and Slavic in fact seem more likely: German _Ritter_ and
Russian _rytsar'_, "knight," produce (via French _chevalier_ if you
wish) English _Cavaliers_, the royalist opponents of the Roundheads
in the English Civil War. This makes sense of the "sons of
reactionary nobles" in the context, and doesn't rule out the idea of
a brotherhood of rutting knights in a mental rut.