{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1387",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1387,
    "subject": "Word origins...?",
    "messages": 3,
    "voices": 3,
    "first": "1999-02-24T11:34:25+00:00",
    "last": "1999-02-24T20:13:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0023-0097@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Yann Oehl",
        "address": "yann at emergentmedia.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-02-24T11:34:25+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Word origins...?",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I apologize for changing the subject... but does anyone know the original\nsource of the word \"Alzabo\". Is it a mythological beast, an alchemical\nallegory, or did Gene just make that one up? Curious.\nThanks all.\n.y"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0023-0098@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Kevin J. Maroney",
        "address": "kmaroney at crossover.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-02-24T14:51:59+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: (urth) Word origins...?",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0023-0097@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "At 11:34 AM 2/24/99 -0800, Yann wrote:\nI apologize for changing the subject... but does anyone know the original\nsource of the word \"Alzabo\". Is it a mythological beast, an alchemical\nallegory, or did Gene just make that one up? Curious."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "It's a Romanized version of the Arabic word for \"hyena\", if I'm not\nmistaken. The Alzabo was introduced as a replacement for the hyena because,\nlike the hyena, it laughs.\n\n(Remember that most/all of the animal species of Urth except humans were\ndriven extinct at some point in the past, and the animals present in the\nBook are alien replacements which approximate the original species.\nDestriers aren't horses, they're alien horse-like beings. This is an\ninversion of the standard sf cliche where an alien world is populated by\nexotic creatures which are actually just cows and bunnies with different\nnames; here the Earth is populated by alien species which are *like* cows\nand bunnies.)\n\nWombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at crossover.com\nKitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction\nhttp://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0023-0099@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.com"
      },
      "date": "1999-02-24T20:13:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Word origins...?",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0023-0098@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Y,\n\nHello and welcome.\n\n\"Alzabo\" is a fabulous creature from medieval bestiaries of Europe,\nbased in part (it is thought) upon legends surrounding the hyena (a\nnon-European creature).  See: BOOK OF BEASTS translated by White,\nand/or THE BOOK OF IMAGINARY BEINGS by Borges.\n\n\"Alzabo\" is not itself an alchemical term, to the best of my\nknowledge.  And no, Gene Wolfe did not make it up--nor did he invent\n99% of the odd words used in TBOTNS (you can trust me: I wrote a book\non the subject).\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}