Mr. Wolfe and Mrs. Byrne

Dan Parmenter · 19 May 2000, 17:03 · from urth-v0029.mbox · original

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From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>
Subject: (urth) Mr. Wolfe and Mrs. Byrne
Date: 19 May 2000 17:03:08
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For me, one of the continuing joys of the New Sun books is the
much-commented-upon use of archaic words.  Wolfe himself has written
about this (CASTLE OF THE OTTER) and indeed, our own Michael A-D has
provided us with his remarkable Lexicon, an ingenious and fascinating
series of writings about the Book of the New Sun in the form of a
dictionary. =20

My own personal and professional interest in words, dictionaries and
lexicography has often led me to seek out unusual collections of words
and one of the best I've come across is Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary by
Josefa Heifetz Byrne, the daughter of violinist Jascha Heifetz.

The number of "Lupine" words in the book is quite astonishing.  I've
been compiling a list of them, which I'll post at some point, but it
includes some of my favorites, such as "paracoita" and "hierodule".
There are enough Lupine terms that given the book's popularity, with
numerous printings (it's still in print now in fact), I would have to
assume that Wolfe knows the book quite well.  A search through the
URTH archives indicates that one or two other folks (including the
esteemed Mr. Andre-Driussi) have mentioned it, but no one else seems
to have mentioned the extent of the debt that Wolfe owes Mrs. Byrne.

Lex Shellac

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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