The Katharine maid

Roy C. Lackey · 27 Oct 2006, 07:27 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 02:27:32 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Katharine maid
Message-ID: <002801c6f999$61227b00$323ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

 Tim Walters quoted and wrote:

>On Oct 26, 2006, at 9:17 PM, Roy C. Lackey wrote:
>>
>> I was hoping someone else would do this. Yes, he is referring to
>> her as his
>> mother.  But, as I said, borne is the past participle of bear (to
>> carry).
>> Born (no "e") is the past participle of bear (to give birth). Borne
>> and born
>> are not interchangeable, which is why they have separate entries in
>> my old
>> _Webster's_.
>
>My old _Webster's_ says:
>
>born, a. [pp. of bear (to give birth): now used only in passive
>constructions not followed by _by_.]

Precisely. My _Webster's_ says the same thing. That's why Wolfe didn't write
"born by"; he wrote "borne by". "Born" has nothing to do with the sentence
in question. The word isn't in the sentence.

["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."]

-Roy

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