Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0019112, Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:09:36 +0000

Subject
Re: Fw: [NABOKV-L] Powerful Kramler: Nabokov decoded ...
Date
Body
Gr8 lynx, Jim lad! Wonderful to realize how many STANGS usages (pedantic
spelling ŒStang) refer to the Mustang car owners¹ in-slang. I drooled green
tears looking at DN¹s exotic ecurie. Any Stangs in there, and did FATHER
KNOW?!
Many other makes that may confuse naïve googling: LAGS (Lagonda); JAGS
(Jaguars); MOGGIES (Morgans); MERX/MERCS (Mercedes); CRAP (Lauda! Only
joking; no offence)

Further possible VN link to ŒStang. There¹s that suspicious RED open-sports
car (driven perhaps by Quilty) possibly following HH and Lo as they head
West on their final trip. Surely a Mustang, RED being the preferred colour!
Neither movie, as I recall, follows the novel¹s description of the cars
involved? Usual excuses if this topic has already been discussed.
SKB

On 16/01/2010 03:01, "James Twiggs" <jtwigzz@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> "STANG"
>
> Go here for a list of 50 quotations in which the word "stang" appears,
> including several from Gulliver's Travels and other works that VN was sure to
> know:
>
> http://www.wordnik.com/words/stang/examples
>
> I have no doubt that the true truffle snorters among us could, if he/she set
> his/her mind to it, relate every one of these quotations to VN's choice of the
> word (but, as Stan suggests, to what purpose?). One of the most interesting
> uses is in the expression "riding the stang," which is explained here:
>
> http://www.answers.com/topic/riding-the-stang
>
> and, in far more colorful language, here:
>
> http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/answers/articles5/X0017_Ride_the_wild_STANG.h
> tml
>
> But isn't it possible that VN (or Shade), faced with the difficult problem of
> finding a suitable one-syllable word at this point, simply made the best of a
> bad situation?
>
>
> As for Webster's Second, it is online and free at
>
> http://machaut.uchicago.edu/
>
> I don't have my own treasured copy of the dictionary handy at the moment, so
> I'm not sure whether the online edition (1913) is the same as the one VN would
> have used.
>
> Jim Twiggs
>
> From: "b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz" <b.boyd@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Sent: Fri, January 15, 2010 1:50:12 PM
> Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Powerful Kramler: Nabokov decoded ...
>
> Sorry to be a party-pooper, but we know what Nabokov's preferred English
> dictionary was, so it seems pointless to decide that this or that word he has
> used is a coinage, when it's in Webster's Second.
>
> There, there are 5 different entries for "stang," and the first sense of the
> first entry is "A pole, rail, or beam."
>
> "Larvarium" it defines as "A box or cage for the rearing of insect larvae."
>
> As far as I know it is still possible to obtain old copies of Webster's Second
> International Unabridged at ridiculously low prices from Merriam-Webster.
>
> Brian Boyd
>
>
> On 15/01/2010, at 9:20 AM, jansymello wrote:
>
>> Gary Lipon to jansymello [I mean, the substantive "Stange" meaning "perch,"]
>> I don't get an entry for "stange" meaning "perch" in thefreedictionary.com
>> <http://thefreedictionary.com> , my first goto source for words, only a town
>> in Norway. So I'm confused as to what you mean...The peculiar thing is that
>> "rail" and "stang" are both monosyllabic and thus work equally well in terms
>> of prosody.Surely VN would have considered a common word like "rail"; thus
>> must of really intended "stang"...
>>
>> JM: I originally checked in the Oxford Duden Dictionary (German), but on-line
>> there is Stange, indicating perch, stick,rail...:
>> Stange Stange f , -, -n
>> a (=langer, runder Stab) pole
>> (=Querstab) bar
>> (=Ballettstange) barre
>> (=Kleiderstange, Teppichstange) rail
>> (=Gardinenstange, Leiste für Treppenläufer) rod
>> (=Vogelstange) perch
>> (=Hühnerstange) perch, roost
>> (=Gebissstange) bit, (Hunt) (=Schwanz) brush
>> (=Geweihteil) branch (of antlers) (fig) (=dünner Mensch) beanpole inf
>> b (=länglicher Gegenstand) stick
>> eine Stange Zigaretten a carton of 200 cigarettes
>> c (=zylinderförmiges Glas) tall glass
>> d (Redewendungen) ein Anzug von der Stange a suit off the peg (Brit) or
>> rack (US)
>> von der Stange kaufen to buy off the peg (Brit) or rack (US)
>> jdn bei der Stange halten inf to keep or hold sb
>> bei der Stange bleiben inf to stick at it inf
>> jdm die Stange halten inf to stick up for sb inf , to stand up for sb
>> eine (schöne or ganze) Stange Geld inf a tidy sum inf
>>
>> Translation Stange in the German-English Collins dictionary
>> <http://dictionary.reverso.net/german-english/Stange>
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