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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
O.Henry is describing a millionaire's estate:
"The Millionaire's palace occupied a lordly space. In front of it was a lawn close-mowed as a South Ireland man's face two days after a shave. At one side of it, and fronting on another street was a pleasuance trimmed to a leaf, and the garage and stables."
Webster's 1913 Dictionary
Definition: \Pleas"ance\, n. [F. plaisance. See {Please}.]
1. Pleasure; merriment; gayety; delight; kindness. [Archaic]
--Shak. ``Full great pleasance.'' --Chaucer. ``A realm of
pleasance.'' --Tennyson.
2. A secluded part of a garden. [Archaic]
The pleasances of old Elizabethan houses. --Ruskin.
I assume that "pleasuance" in the text is a typo.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
These secluded parts of gardens offer such a sense of surprise and mystery. We have many pleasances at Maymont in Richmond.
I checked out your spelling and came across:
"Chaffy; resembling or consisting of paleae, or chaff; furnished with chaff; as, a paleaceous receptacle."
...for paleaceous
But because it is very, very late, I misread 'chaff' for 'cliff' and thought I'd found quite a wonderful definition! Time for bed!
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
I could find nought to confirm the typo supposition or otherwise, Bill. However, the info on variant forms of 'pleasure' is quite interesting, so I present it for your pleaceur:
[ME. plesir, plaisir a. OF. plesir, plaisir (12th c. in Littr้), + Pr. plazer, Sp. placer, Pg. pracer, It. piacere, Com. Romanic substantival use of the vb. infin.:L. placUre to please. By 1400, ple"sWr had become (in prose) "plUsir, "plUser, and its unstressed ending being confounded with that of words etymologically in -ure, e.g. measure, it was corruptly spelt and pronounced plesure, pleasure. The dialects have retained more eytmological forms in pleezer, plezzer ("pli;z@(r), "plEz@(r)).]
A. Illustration of Forms.
(a) 45 plesir, 5 plesyr, -yre, -ire, -ier, -yer; plaisir, playsir, -ire, -yr, -yre; pleasir, -ire, -ier, -yr, -er; pleeser; 56 pleser, -ere; 6 pleasire; 9 dial. pleezer, plezzer.
[...]
(b) 5 plaisur, playsur, -ure; 56 plesur; pleasur, -our (7 Sc.); 57 plesure; 5 pleasure; 6 plesour, -oure, -owre, -ewre; pleasor, Sc. pleisour, -ure, pleissour, plessour, -uir, 7 pleaceur, Sc. pleassour, plessor.
[...] 3b. A pleasure-ground. Obs.
[e.a.]
And I came across another lovely word in passing:
dicacity
[f. L. dicQx, dicQc-em, sarcastic (f. dic- stem of dWcSre to say, speak) + -ity.]
A jesting or mocking habit of speech; raillery, banter; pertness. (Sometimes after L. dWcSre: Talkativeness, babbling.)
OED2
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