kategladstone has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 1 list, listed 0 words, written 1 comment, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.
kategladstone has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 1 list, listed 0 words, written 1 comment, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.
Comments by kategladstone
kategladstone commented on the word umquhile
Re:
"As early as 1832, Frances Trollope was noting it as obsolete, in her Domestic Manners of the Americans ... "
Wrong.
In that book, Frances Trollope uses the word "umquhile" exactly once -- in Chapter 7, quoted below -- with (as the citation reveals) no reference whatsoever to the word's having passed out of use:
"I was also told of a gentleman of High Cincinnati, _ton_ and critical of his taste for the fine arts, who, having a drawing put into his hands, representing Hebe and the bird, umquhile sacred to Jupiter, demanded in a satirical tone, 'What is this?' 'Hebe,' replied the alarmed collector. 'Hebe,' sneered the man of taste, 'What the devil has Hebe to do with the American eagle?' "
Can you find anything there -- in DOMESTIC MANNERS OF THE AMERICAN's sole use of "umquhile" -- which identifies the word as obsolete?
May 26, 2009