"James Lipton - ExaltationOfLarks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lipton James)

AN IMPERTINENCE OF PEDDLERS
A THRAVE OF THRESHERS
Under "thresher" the NED quotes "A Thraue of Throsheris" from St. Albans, and defines thrave as "Two shocks of corn."
A SQUAT OF DAUBERS
Daubers repaired walls and fences and the term obviously refers to their working position.
A FIGHTING OF BEGGARS
AN UNTRUTH OF SUMMONERS
A MELODY OF HARPISTS
A POVERTY OF PIPERS
In the fifteenth century it was obviously wiser to take up the harp than the pipes.
A NEVERTHRIVING OF JUGGLERS
Obviously they had it no better than the pipers.
A SUBTLETY OF SERGEANTS
This term confused me greatly: of the sergeants I have known, very few were subtle, and I couldn't believe human nature had changed that radically in only five hundred years. And so I began a slow search through dusty library stacks for the secret behind a sotelty of sergeauntis. I found it at the end of a very long list of definitions in an exceptionally must volume. "Sergeant," the book said, was "a title borne by a lawyer." Case dismissed.
A DRIFT OF FISHERMEN
A BLACKENING OF SHOEMAKERS
This one was thorny too. What Dame Juliana said was a Bleche of sowteris. I found this singularly unilluminating, but another trek through the atheneal dust revealed that sowters were shoemakers and that bleche meant either "bleach" or "blacken" (from the OE blaeccean). I opted for "blacken." It may have been the dust.
A SMIRK OF COURIERS
The original is a Smere of Coryouris. To "laugh smere" is to laugh lightly, mockingly. "Smirk" is derived from it.
A CLUSTER OF GRAPES
Yes, a genuine venereal term, codified 500 years ago.
A CLUSTER OF CHURLS
AN EXAMPLE OF MASTERS
A RAGE OF MAIDENS
In the note on rag of colts I indicated that we would re-encounter the term in a different context. Here it is, meaning not "anger" but "wantonness," from the OF ragier. A rather sad commentary on fifteenth-century maidenhood - or the want of it.
AN INCREDULITY OF CUCKOLDS
This splendid venereal term also inspired some interesting digging - that led to fascinating provenances. It appears in the list as an vncredibilitie of Cocoldis, which doesn't seem to make much sense: cuckolds have good reason to be incredulous, but no one doubts their existence, which vncredibilitie would seem to imply. I assumed that somehow, at some time, "incredibility" must have meant "incredulity" as well and so translated it. Then I began a diffident search for some kind of confirmation. I was astonished to find that the NED, under uncredible, gave the expected "incredible" as its first definition, but the definitely unexpected "incredulous" as its second. I had been instinctively right - and now I had proof. What was my proof? The magisterial, multi-tomed New English Dictionary says so. But even the NED must support its views, and whom does Dr. Murray offer as his authority? Dame Juliana! "Incredulous," says the NED, and points for proof to "1486 Bk. of St. Albans f vi b, An vncredibilitie of Cocoldis." The logic is suspiciously circular, and it's a bit like being offered your own watch as collateral, but I think I'm ready to settle.
A RIFFRAFF OF KNAVES
Here is another term we have encountered before. In an earlier note I suggested that you remember raff. The moment has come to resurrect it. This term appears in the St. Albans list as a Rafull of knauys. The NED refers you from 'rafull' or 'rayful' to 'raffle,' and we are back to our root raff, obviously a very popular word in the fifteenth century. This time we are told that "raffle" had as one of its meanings, riffraff, and we have our translation.
AN ELOQUENCE OF LAWYERS
A FORESIGHT OF HOUSEKEEPERS
A SKULK OF THIEVES
A PONTIFICALITY OF PRELATES
AN OBSERVANCE OF HERMITS
AN EXECUTION OF OFFICERS
A FAITH OF MERCHANTS
Clearly meant sarcastically.
A SAFEGUARD OF PORTERS
A GAGGLE OF WOMEN
A CUTTING OF COBBLERS
The key to this term also lay at the end of a rather tortuous, labyrithinian path, and, on the theory that the reader isn't too exhausted to make one more expedition with me back to the fifteenth century, I will retrace my steps. the Book of St. Albans was printed just ten years after the date that is generally taken as the dividing line between Middle and Modern English, and, to the inexpert eye, some of these terms can appear impenetrable. Take this one: what would you make of a Trynket of Corueseris? Well, you would begin with Corueseris. The "is," you know, is a fifteenth-century plural form. And you take the "u" for a "v" because it makes more sense euphonically. Now you have the singular "corveser," and this is where you begin in the NED, which says that "corveser" is a variant of "corviser." Very well, you move on to "corviser" and search through all the orthographic shapes it has taken through the centuries, coming finally to "corueseris, from F. courvoisier, shoemaker." We seem to have half our term, but why a trynket? Quickly enough you discover that the NED has "tryn" as a variant spelling of "trin," and then you come to the coup de foudre. Under "trinket" the NED says: "From the similarity of form, it has been suggested that this is the same word as Trenket, or trynket, a small knife, spec. a shoemaker's knife." Eureka.
AN ILLUSION OF PAINTERS
This term is Misbeleue which, according to the NED, has more the sense of 'erroneous belief" than "refusal to believe"; hence "illusion" in the sense of "trompe-l'oeil." The NED also gives the term, in its original orthography, as a "term for a 'company of painters."
A LASH OF CARTERS
A WAYWARDNESS OF HERDSMEN
A DIGNITY OF CANONS
A CHARGE OF CURATES
A DISCRETION OF PRIESTS
A SKULK OF FRIARS
AN ABOMINABLE SIGHT OF MONKS