Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002919, Sat, 14 Mar 1998 10:18:46 -0800

Subject
listing of "Nabokovian" in OED2. (fwd)
Date
Body
from: kh-lu@uchicago.edu, Kelvin Lu

This is pretty trivial yet interesting in a way. The following is the
definition of "Nabokovian" given by the Oxford English Dictionary 2nd ed.
My school has a web version, and at the search field, it says "ex. marxist"
so I figured why not "Nabokovian." I was surprised to get all the different
examples of usage.

here it is:

Term: nabokovian
Found: one match



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1. Nabokovian
Nabokovian , a. f. the name Nabokov (see below) + -ian. Of, pertaining to,
resembling, or characteristic of the Russian-born novelist and poet Vladimir
Nabokov (1899-1977) or his writings.

1959 Observer 1 Nov. 21/6 There is a Nabokovian poignancy in leaving such
delicate things to be destroyed, as he says with a rueful smile, `by such
booted people'.


1965 Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Jan. 68/4 Mr. Nabokov's Eugene Onegin will be read
not for the learning. It will be read for the brilliant fireworks of his
prose and for the beauty of the Nabokovian phrase.


1968 Punch 25 Dec. 932/3 Mr. Stegner chooses instead to invest detail with
significance, and he overwrites in truly Nabokovian manner.


1972 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 10 June 68/2, I found myself searching for Nabokovian
anagrams in the names.


1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Oct. 1285/1 The narrative manner similarly
alternates between abruptly functional stage or screen-direction and a
Nabokovian obliquity in which words take on an energy of their own and
skitter away from the matter in hand.