Wordnik.com: The Aubrey::Maturin List I'm Gonna Make Someday: Comments

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:44:31 +0000

I saw a bumper sticker the other night that said "Aubrey-Maturin '08." Heh.

Comment by nickbarnes, about 1 year ago

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:06:04 +0000

I had the satisfaction of seeing his fore topmast go by the board. I like to think it was the stern-chaser I had just fired that cut the backstay but it was more likely an absurd overpress of sail. Any gate, he came up into the wind...
"Foretopmast": the topmast on the foremast.
"go by the board": be lost, come apart, come away.
"stern-chaser": a gun mounted on the stern of a ship, for use in a chase.
"backstay": a very strong rope leading down and back from a mast-head, to the body of the ship or to a mast behind. Prevents the mast from falling forwards.
"overpress of sail": too much sail for the rigging or masts, for any given weather or point of sailing.
"any gate": at any rate, in any case.
"came up into the wind": turned into the wind. "up" is into the wind, "down" is with the wind.

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:58:10 +0000

I like this one too.
"'...upper-tree, side-trees, heel-pieces, side-fishes, cheeks, front-fish and cant-pieces, all scarfed, coaked, bolted, hooped and woolded together; it will be a wonderful sight when it is finished, as solid as the Ark of the Covenant.'" (The Wine-Dark Sea, 52)

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:59:41 +0000

I like this part so I'm recording it here.
"'I had the satisfaction of seeing his fore topmast go by the board. I like to think it was the stern-chaser I had just fired that cut the backstay but it was more likely an absurd overpress of sail. Any gate, he came up into the wind...'"

This reminds me of that Monty Python sketch skipvia posted a while ago. WTF are they *saying*?

Comment by fbharjo, about 1 year ago

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:07:51 +0000

how about "the real decoy"

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:02:54 +0000

I could, mollusque, if I were more systematic about it. Right now I'm just kinda making a teensy dogear on a page when I think I've found a word I never saw before. I don't flag every occurrence, though sometimes I have flagged a word again simply because the volume of new words has made me forget I saw that one -N- books ago. But tags! Yes!

Comment by mollusque, about 1 year ago

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:19:52 +0000

You could use tags if you want to see which words are in which novels.

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:06:10 +0000

No, that's right, reesetee. You absolutely can't. But, I did start, about midway through, posting usages, and I guess I could separate them based on the usages. But what fun would that be? I'd rather just have a list with 1,000 words on it! (As long as it doesn't break Wordie.)

Comment by reesetee, about 1 year ago

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:44:49 +0000

And you can't even divide them by novels--I'd imagine each of the words you add appears more than once in more than one of the books.

Gosh, it's fun to be addicted to Wordie, isn't it?

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:32:10 +0000

I can't imagine how many words will be on it once I've been through all 20 of the novels. Maybe it'll be like stpeter's list used to be and break Wordie. I'll have to separate it into novel-sized chunks or something. Oh god. Now it isn't just that Wordie is my hobby--it's a Wordie-specific hobby all to itself. ... Teh alsome.

Comment by sionnach, about 1 year ago

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:52:23 +0000

I notice that Patrick O' Brian cover art comes up in the google ads pretty frequently these days. Wonder why that could be?

This list is teh alsome!

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:06:11 +0000

Vega, I am constantly coming across your excellent Notebook list! Thanks for posting a link here!

Also, I lucked out: there's a used bookstore in my town that takes books in exchange and gives you store credit. I racked up quite a pile of credit there, and now whenever an O'Brian novel turns up I snap it up. I have about five of the 20 now, and haven't spent a cent on them! Woo!

Comment by vega, about 1 year ago

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:12:23 +0000

Woohoo, I have a similar list too, though it's all mixed up. O'Brian is fantastic for broadening vocabulary isn't he?

*is going to get her own boxed set too, someday*

Comment by reesetee, about 1 year ago

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:54:53 +0000

Are you saying I'm behaving histrionically??

Nifty! Only I don't think I have any more room for books in my house. Another few volumes and the place will collapse under its own weight.

Okay, maybe just a couple. ;-)

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:05:21 +0000

No need for histrionics, reesetee.

Actually I think you can buy the entire set in a big box or something. They even have unabridged versions (I'm not sure what that means--is that like director's cut movies? Because mostly those suck) and I found not only an atlas companion, but a book called "A Sea of Words" that's basically an Aubrey/Maturin novel lexicon. With sketches and articles and other stuff in it. Coolio!

Comment by reesetee, about 1 year ago

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:42:31 +0000

Ohhhh, aalll right. I'll go to my library. *dramatic sigh*

;-)

Comment by jennarenn, about 1 year ago

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:37:23 +0000

There you are! Welcome back. I'm gratified to see that even Wordie greats can still learn stuff. Gives me hope.

Comment by chained_bear, about 1 year ago

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:56:47 +0000

No way. I'm using library books this time. But I'm getting myself a whole set someday--I know I'm gonna need to read these again.

Comment by reesetee, about 1 year ago

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:37:12 +0000

Cool. I'll borrow those books when you're finished. :-)