"garrulously pour hateful instructions in Russian-lapped German into her hateful bidet, she decided to stop turning on tap water altogether".
To me this sentence always suggested that Dr's German is strongly "lined up" - or folded over - with a Russian accent. I got this meaning from the "lapel": part of the front of a coat folded back toward the shoulders", and "lappet: flat or fold". Of course, I may be transferring my own associations of the words into the text here. But isn't this the common-sence meaning?
 
Also, probably, not all VN's uses of the word "lapping", "lapped", etc. are identical, and should not be automatically linked.
 
Irena
----- Original Message -----
From: Donald B. Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 12:52 AM
Subject: Fwd: Re: Help to translate "lapping at Vanīs rock" ...??



----- Forwarded message from chaiselongue@earthlink.net -----
    Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 11:33:25 -0800
    From: Carolyn <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: Carolyn <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
 Subject: Re: Help to translate "lapping at Vanīs rock" ...??
      To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
 Russian-lapped German into her hateful bidet,


Could this be a reference to Aqua's Alsatian dog?

----- End forwarded message -----


Russian-lapped German into her hateful bidet,


Could this be a reference to Aqua's Alsatian dog?