Posted by Adam Quinan on January 05, 2001 at 12:54:45 from 24.112.32.13:
In Reply to: COOT CLUB - observations part ONE posted by Ed Kiser on January 05, 2001 at 06:44:46:
My replies on some aspects:
COOT CLUB
Observations:
P52 Chapter 4
"The bows of the big cruiser were moored to the bank above the
opening."
Bows? Plural?
My conclusion: "Bows" is the noun; "bow" is the adjective.
Bows, one on either side of the point at the end? Hence a port bow and a starboard bow.
P52 Chapter 4
Consider the names of the objects of technology of that time:
"All the Hullabaloos were down below in the two cabins, and in
one cabin there was a wireless set and a loud speaker, and in the
other they were working a gramaphone."
I realize this is the early thirties. Just wondered when the
language managed to shift from "wireless set" to "radio", and
when "gramaphone" became "record player".
My father born 1923 uses wireless (no set) and record player dropped out of my vocabulary in the 1960s I think.
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P60 chapter 5
"Mrs. Barrable drummed on her teeth with the end of her
penholder
Ink bottle? An anachronism of another time...
I can buy ink in bottles for my fountain pen in Canada and a lot of people practice calligraphy as an art form and for formal documents and invitations.
P62 chapter 5
"make a really good dash for an omnibus"
I don't know if this is a difference with American English as
compared to British English, or perhaps this is an archiac term
that belongs to that older age, but the use of the word,
"omnibus", would today, at least around here (USA), be just a
"bus".
In modern English I would agree, omnibus is an old formal word which shows where the word bus came from.
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P66, chapter 5
"Were you lurking all the time?" said Dorothea.
The verb, "LURK", appears in many places in the Ransome series.
This seems to be a specific Swallows and Amazons usage I don't think many people would have said Lurk in this context.
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P72, chapter 5
"Do you think we'll see him again?" asked Dick's voice
out of the darkness forrard.
"forrard" - I would have spelled it "forward" - but maybe this is
some sort of "nautical" term.
It is a nautical usage by trying to match spelling with the way its pronounced.
- - - -
P80 chapter 7
"...you'll find lots of birds to look at in the marsh and among those sallows."
What feature of the river bank geography is referenced as "sallows"?
Sallows are willows
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P81 chapter 7
"...taken some patent blocks to pieces and given them a thorough
oiling."
But what kind of a block is a PATENT block?
This does simply refer to a block with some special feature that has been patented.