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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I came across a new-to-me word while looking up something else: anacoluthon. Onelook's Quick definitions gives: noun: an abrupt change within a sentence from one syntactic structure to another , and for origin links to the Online Etymology Dictionary, which says: anacoluthon 1706, "want of grammatical sequence, changing constructions in mid-clause," from L., from Gk. neut. of anakolouthos "inconsequent," from an- "not" + akolouthos "following," from copulative prefix a- + keleuthos "way, road, track, path" (see celerity). Then I wondered whether our fearless leader had ever used it, and sure enough he had. I'll put it all below because I found it so interesting, not having been familiar with Tintin. But what really amazed me was that a word like anacoluthon would have been used in a comic book. Ok: All good things come in small numbers and perhaps that explains why there are only two dozen Tintin comics. Originally written in French and meticulously drawn by the Belgian artist Herge between 1929 and 1986, every page of Tintin is truly a feast for the eyes. It's no wonder Tintin is read by fans in over 50 languages around the world. In his adventures the boy reporter Tintin is accompanied by a small white fox terrier Snowy, absent-minded Professor Calculus, bumbling fools Thompson & Thomson, and of course, Captain Haddock with the unforgettable curses that betray his expansive vocabulary. The official Tintin Web site is www.tintin.be . This week's AWAD features words from the English translation of Tintin comics. -Anu -------- Date: Tue Dec 16 00:03:11 EST 1997 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--anacoluthon X-Bonus: Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. -Henry J. Kaiser an.a.co.lu.thon n. A want of grammatical sequence or coherence in a sentence; an instance of a change of construction in a sentence so that the latter part does not syntactically correspond with the first part. Herge, Explorers on the Moon, 1954, p. 176 Captain Haddock: "Blistering barnacles, this is a serious interrogation! In other words, anacoluthons, you keep out of it." This week's theme: words from Tintin comics. Further search revealed that anacoluthon has been mentioned here 3 times (didn't bother to LU Tintin, but I know it has): Bill posted about it, and it was mentioned in this thread too, which gives us the word that some of us keep trying to remember: http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=14219
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