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BS: Linguist help needed - "elting?"
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BS: Linguist help needed - "elting?" |
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Subject: BS: Linguist help needed From: Newport Boy Date: 22 Jan 08 - 04:42 PM I've been reading a poem - November - by John Clare (1793-1864) in which he uses a word I've never encountered before - elting. I can't find a definition, except as a unusual US surname. This is the extract from the poem: The ploughman....bends and scampers o'er the elting soil, While clouds above him in wild fury boil. Any ideas? Phil |
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Subject: RE: BS: Linguist help needed From: John MacKenzie Date: 22 Jan 08 - 04:47 PM All I can find is this . Could it be a place name? G |
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Subject: RE: BS: Linguist help needed From: Becca72 Date: 22 Jan 08 - 04:49 PM ELTING. Kneading, as bread in a trough. Peculiar to the northern part of the countyj and now nearly obsolete. Noticed by Bailey as a country word; Ray, Grose, and the Craven Glossarist, place the verb Elt amongst the provincialisms of the north of England. OR ELTING-MOULDS. The soft ridges of fresh-ploughed lands. A figurative use of the preceding word, adopted by Clare in his "Village Minstrel;" who also employs it adjectively. Got this from googling the phrase "elting soil" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Linguist help needed From: Georgiansilver Date: 22 Jan 08 - 04:57 PM Elting may well be the name of a place, rather than a description of the soil.........Have a good knowledge of old English and have no records or memories of Elting as a descriptive word. There is an Elting Library in New York. Best wishes, Mike. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Linguist help needed From: Newport Boy Date: 22 Jan 08 - 05:00 PM Brilliant - and all in 7 minutes! Thanks Becca - I tried googling "elting", but the definition reference must have been well buried. Giok - I think that's the surname again - I don't know whether there is a connection. Phil |
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Subject: RE: BS: Linguist help needed From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 22 Jan 08 - 06:33 PM My unabridged dictionary says that 'elt' is an archaic dialect word meaning 'to knead.' If you have ever walked across a ploughed field and sensed how the soil has been pushed into highs and lows by the plough, then you can understand how one might use 'elt' in a poetic sense to apply to the soil. 'Elt' comes from the Old Norse. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Linguist help needed From: katlaughing Date: 22 Jan 08 - 06:51 PM How kewl! |
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Subject: RE: Elting: definition From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 22 Jan 08 - 08:23 PM "soft ridges of fresh plowed (ploughed) land", as Becca posted. In Oxford English Dictionary: 1821, Clare, in Village Minstr. "I took my rounds o'er elting moulds of fallow grounds." 1854, Baker, Northhamptonsh. Glossary, The definition, to knead, also provided with examples, in Lancashire Glossary. In future, please put the word requested in the Subject thread. It would help others find the definitions in the future. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Linguist help needed - "elting?" From: open mike Date: 23 Jan 08 - 01:25 AM it brings to mind another phrase: "Effing the ineffable" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Linguist help needed - "elting?" From: Newport Boy Date: 23 Jan 08 - 05:40 AM Thanks Q for the references. I'm suitably rebuked over the thread title - I'll be more careful in future. Phil |
