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Re: Fw: [NABOKV-L] Powerful Kramler: Nabokov decoded ...
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Re: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Powerful Kramler: Nabokov decoded ... Stan Kelly-Bootle: Professor Boyd: many thanks for the perfectly valid point about what VN meant by "stang." And for repeating the excellent advice: Always consult VN's pet W2 (Webster II) first. That can often curtail much idle speculation, source- & soul-searching, and VN-mind-reading. ..In spite of many chatty cross-reference and usage guides, I don't see a link from rail to the synonym stang! Neither does the W2 stang entry link to rail. My initial hunch of dialectal links with sting/stung is confirmed
Stang, v. i. [Akin to sting; cf. Icel. stanga to prick, to goad.] To shoot with pain. [Prov. Eng.]
More research needed on other W2 entries that might link to stang = rail.
JM: After your curtailing railing and many post-prandial soul-searching on my part, I selected one of the examples, extracted from Robert Burns, from the list sent by Jim Twiggs. It confirms your stinging intention:
"But for how lang the flie may stang," - The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham
I hope Nabokov didn't pronounce the word with a sound similar to "jungle" (as it appears in the next verse).
On the whole, my vote goes to a reference that encompasses Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". We can even measure the height of the woods surrounding poor Hazel:
These fields were intermingled with woods of half a stang, {1} and the tallest trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet high. - Gulliver's Travels
A stang is a pole or perch; sixteen feet and a half. - Gulliver's Travels (footnote)
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Stang, v. i. [Akin to sting; cf. Icel. stanga to prick, to goad.] To shoot with pain. [Prov. Eng.]
More research needed on other W2 entries that might link to stang = rail.
JM: After your curtailing railing and many post-prandial soul-searching on my part, I selected one of the examples, extracted from Robert Burns, from the list sent by Jim Twiggs. It confirms your stinging intention:
"But for how lang the flie may stang," - The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham
I hope Nabokov didn't pronounce the word with a sound similar to "jungle" (as it appears in the next verse).
On the whole, my vote goes to a reference that encompasses Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". We can even measure the height of the woods surrounding poor Hazel:
These fields were intermingled with woods of half a stang, {1} and the tallest trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet high. - Gulliver's Travels
A stang is a pole or perch; sixteen feet and a half. - Gulliver's Travels (footnote)
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/