Re: Black swans in England?


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Posted by Ed Kiser on February 13, 2009 at 18:04:38 user Kisered.

In Reply to: Re: Black swans in England? posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on February 13, 2009 at 16:23:33:

The things one learns why persuing All Things Ransome...

Andrew .
You used the word "pinioned" in reference to the black swans. I had to go look up that word, and found it is derived from the Latin meaning "wing", so from that, I guess what you meant is that some of the wing feathers had been clipped.

When I was growing up, we had chickens in a back yard pen, and to keep them from flying over the fence, we clipped the feathers from one wing, which made any attempt to fly a bit one sided. We did have a ladder leaning against a tree in that chicken yard which they used, hopping from one rung up to the next with a flutter, until they were able to get out on a branch for roosting at night. Their coming down in the morning was a bit amusing as they attempted to flutter down, but with one wing being clipped, it was a rather frantic crash landing, but from not all that high up, so no harm done. It was good for a few laughs.

The word, "Pen", seems to be related, as one used to use a feather as a quill pen, dipped in ink, to be a writing instrument.

You used the word, "pen", as "she was a pen" referring to a black swan that joined a flock of local mute swans. Not sure what that meant.

This one black swan that joined the locals managed this as: "scarpered as far as the Deben" - and that brings me back to the dictionary to understand THAT verb. "Flee, run away, leave, depart" is what the dictionary had. I would have said, "escaped" but that would not be as elegant.

This just goes to show the value of studying Latin.

It also shows the educational value of studying All Things Ransome.

Thanks, Andrew, for the language lesson.

Ed Kiser, Kentucky


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