The Katharine maid

Nathan Spears · 26 Oct 2006, 21:17 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: spearofsolomon at yahoo.com (Nathan Spears)
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:17:19 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) The Katharine maid
Message-ID: <20061026211720.95006.qmail at web54409.mail.yahoo.com>

http://www.allwords.com/word-born.html

If the "borne by" means "to bear a burden" then the sentence seems clunky.  It takes a right turn and makes Catherine the focus rather than Severian.  I think he's referring to Catherine as the mother.

"Perhaps I was too distant from myself, from the Severian of bone and flesh who was a burden to Catherine in a cell of the . . ."

"Perhaps I was too distant from myself, from the Severian of bone and
flesh who carried by Catherine in a cell of the . . ." makes even less sense.

----- Original Message ----
From: Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net>
To: The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 2:59:35 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) The Katharine maid

>Rex Lycanthrosaurus quoted:
>>"Perhaps I was too distant from myself, from the Severian of bone and
>>flesh borne by Catherine in a cell of the oubliette under the Matachin
>>Tower."
>>
>>This also seems to contradict Roy Lackey's supposition that Severian was
>>borne outside the Matachin.
>
>Ah, yes, so it does.

Damn. I may have done Wolfe and myself an injustice by conceding too
quickly. <g>

Wasn't there a similar discussion not too long ago about "forebears" or some
such? "Borne" is the past participle of "bear" ("to carry; transport"). When
followed by the word "by", it doesn't refer to having given birth.

-Roy

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