Stan Kelly Bootle notes that
Current Standard English, unlike
French (delirer) and other Romance languages, as noted by Jansy Mello, no
longer has a simple verb meaning “to be delirious” or “to have/suffer a
delirium.” If Maxim Shrayer’s quote ("she suffered a
miscarriage and died the next night, deliring and praying") is
from VN-verbatim, we can assume that he is either teasing us with ‘borrowed’
Latin/French, or, perish the heresy, that VN was unaware of the now archaic verb
“to delirate” reported in Samuel Johnson’s 'Dictionary of the English Language’
(1755) [ ]I have yet to check VN’s favourite Webster
III.
Re-peripeties: I’m more familiar
with using the original Greek, peripeteia (literally, “a sudden
fall or change”). If the aim is to impress fellow-scholars, that’s the way to
go.
Jansy Mello: I checked "deliring" in my copy
of "The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov," 1995 Knopf (339)*
And...I could have kicked myself for having included
"peripeties" among the Latin words. Thanks for the correction and
commentaries. The "sudden fall or change" or " reversion of
circumnstances" in common Brazilian usage implies an action that is
advantageous to the subject, like a "prowess." For Aristotle
("Ars poetica'), as wikipedia informs me, it demands a heroic
action (and "hybris") that opens the way to catharsis. You
mentioned "wide semantic drifts" and, I suppose, the same is
applicable to how words travel from one country, age, culture to another.
..................................
* - "Sovershenstvo" was written in Berlin in June 1932. It
appeared in the Paris daily Poslednie Novosti
(July 3, 1932) and was included in my collection Soglyadatay, Paris, 1938. Although I did
tutor boys in my years of expatriation, I disclaim any other resemblance between
myself and Ivanov.'. V.N., Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories, 1975.
[ ] Tyrants
Destroyed (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1975) includes twelve stories translated by
Dmitri Nabokov in collaboration with the
author: