Which is to say, Sorrow not, sage! I borrow the alliterative words of the worthy Beowulf to welcome Songdog and Renee to the ranks of the officially sage; congratulations to both of you on well-deserved master's degrees. You may now be addressed as "snotor guma" on any and all occasions.
Posted by languagehat at May 16, 2003 10:19 AMI gotta say, "snotor guma" sounds vaguely derogatory to me. Something phonaesthetic, or is it just echoes of "snot" and "gum"?
Posted by: Dorothea Salo at May 16, 2003 11:20 AMSteve, thanks a lot! But if you keep addressing me as "snotor guma", even more stupid people will think I am a man :) After all, guma means "man" (same word as in bridegoom > groom). I don't think I mind...
I want to cite you a passage from the Edda:
Hav. 56
Meğalsnotr
scyli manna hverr,
eva til snotr se;
orlog sín viti
engi maşr fyrir,
şeim er sorgalausastr sevi.
"Middle-wise
should every man be,
never should he be wise;
no one should know
his doom beforehand;
those who do, have the most sour* disposition"
*-sorrowful, of course.
BTW Dorothea, I remember my first Old Norse teacher asked us freshmen what do we think of the name Fafnir. Everybody except me said, "cute and fluffy".
Posted by: Renee at May 16, 2003 12:35 PMRenee, thanks a lot for the quote (which I love) and the laugh (which I needed on this gray and sleep-deprived day -- I'm sleep-deprived enough I can't even remember the name of the rhetorical figure I just used -- hypallage? zeugma? ah, screw it, I'm tired).
Dorothea: I must admit that hint of naughtiness appealed to the fourth-grader in me and doubtless accounted for more of the appeal of the phrase than I'll ever admit to.
Posted by: language hat at May 16, 2003 01:20 PMRenee, I saw a big smokin' dragon, myself, but I was into myth as a kid.
Steve, you are a naughty boy.
Posted by: Dorothea Salo at May 16, 2003 10:35 PM