Sujet : Re: Walter Scott died (21/9/1832) De : kehoea (at) *nospam* parhasard.net (Aidan Kehoe) Groupes :sci.lang Date : 21. Sep 2024, 15:38:53 Autres entêtes Message-ID :<87bk0hdqbm.fsf@parhasard.net> References :1 User-Agent : Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64)
Ar an chéad lá is fiche de mí Méan Fómhair, scríobh Ross Clark:
> Most often mentioned here (at least by me) as a lexical resurrectionist. He > picked up words from old books and manuscripts to lend colour and > verisimilitude to his historical novels. Sometimes these words had not been > in common use for centuries, leading to telltale gaps in the record of > attestations in OED. > > But there's more: "He illustrated Scots dialogue with unprecedented realism, > and gave many words their first recorded usage (over 400 in the Oxford > English Dictionary -- bedazzled, cold shoulder, deferential, hilarious, > password, uptake...)." > > Interesting. I'm always skeptical about such numbers, and I notice Crystal > carefully does not claim that Scott made up these words and expressions. > Still, I'm happy to learn that he was something of a linguistic innovator as > well as an antiquarian.
There’s an awful lot of interest today in his English contemporaries (Byron, Ada Lovelace, Jane Austen) and none in him. I should put him on my to-read list, I understand he’s fairly easy reading.
-- ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out / How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’ (C. Moore)