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#20587
02/28/2001 12:13 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 20
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 20 |
Another item from the mind of Professor Tolkien. He describes the Orcs as "swart." Not wanting to waste the time of this good group, and I went and looked up the word, which I find is basically a synonym for "swarthy" or "tawny," and the citations I have found are pretty old, say, Elizabethan days.
Has anyone seen this word in contemporary use? Are there negative racial connotations? Just asking...
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#20588
02/28/2001 1:19 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
Even the modern form 'swarthy' is so dated as to be virtually obsolete. Tolkien would have taken it straight from Middle English; that is, he wouldn't have needed recent use to justify his own use.
In Old Norse, the dark elves are called svart-alfar. He might have meant precisely this.
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#20589
02/28/2001 6:54 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
>>>Even the modern form 'swarthy' is so dated as to be virtually obsolete.
Not on this side of the pond-- I would use it to describe someone with dark (but not a black/negro) skin, particulary if they had a "5 o'clock shadow"-- that is they needed a shave.
Cop shows use it and news announcers use it--
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#20590
02/28/2001 7:01 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
In Old Norse, the dark elves are called svart-alfar. He might have meant precisely this.This may be a yart, but I think that seems very likely, given that Tolkien belonged to a social club whose weekly meetings were conducted exclusively in Old Norse, or so I read in a biography of him. 
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#20591
02/28/2001 7:06 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
>Tolkien belonged to a social club whose weekly meetings were conducted exclusively in Old Norse...
Well, that would certainly explain a lot...
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