Time, Not Cloning

Lee Berman · 05 Aug 2013, 15:00 · from 2013-August.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2013 11:00:29 -0400
Subject: (urth) Time, Not Cloning
Message-ID: <BLU175-W28FDD4A44A0D4D0015614ECF5C0 at phx.gbl>

>Jeff Wilson: I thought part of the conceit was that the translator of BOTNS did not
>invent any words, but did use obscure ones that had previously been used
>in English before.

I would say yes with the amendment to "previously been used on earth before". Wolfe's
use of the word khaibit and its omission from the OED is clear evidence that he goes
beyond English for his source material. Perhaps there are other examples. Plus I think
names like Ossipago, Abaia and Tzadkiel have probably had negligible mentions in the
history of English usage but are used because they most closely approximate what 
Wolfe is trying to describe.

Sheesh. I was just wondering if maybe Wolfe had caved a bit on inventing Ossipago's name.
So I checked. Nope.

>Ossipago- In Roman mythology, Ossipago was a minor goddess of skeletal structures and the 
>strengthener of foetal bones 

http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Ossipago

"goddess" hm....that's interesting.

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