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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Hapax legomenon? #169412 08/03/2007 5:19 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Quote: praedormitary adjective of or relating to the twilight state of semi-consciousness immediately preceding sleep. ORIGIN ? I found this word in Speak, Memory by Nabokov. It gets 4 Google-hits, all from said memoir. I prepared the definition myself, based on hypnopompic: Quote: hypnopompic adjective of or relating to the twilight state of semi-consciousness immediately preceding waking up. ORIGIN from Greek hupnos "sleep" and pompe "sending away". Is it in a dictionary? What might the origin of this wonderful word be? Last edited by Hydra; 08/03/2007 5:23 AM. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Hapax legomenon? Hydra #169413 08/03/2007 6:10 AM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass you'll find that the usual contrast to hypnopompic is hypnogogic (also hypnagogic), thus obviating any need for this word. edit: dormitary is an obsolete term for sleep-inducing; cf. dormitive -- so pre- and post- could follow, perforce. Last edited by tsuwm; 08/03/2007 6:16 AM. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Hapax legomenon? tsuwm #169415 08/03/2007 6:58 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 So do you think Nabokov just made it up? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Hapax legomenon? Hydra #169416 08/03/2007 7:47 AM Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass tsuwm Carpal Tunnel tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 this too shall pass why not? someone has to do these things! Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Hapax legomenon? Hydra #169417 08/03/2007 9:57 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Originally Posted By: Hydra Is it in a dictionary? What might the origin of this wonderful word be? You want to give us the context from the Nabokov? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Hapax legomenon? Hydra #169421 08/03/2007 2:53 PM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh So do you think Nabokov just made it up? Yes. He was a master of language. He is one of the few authors I can think of who is (rightly) famous for works that he wrote in two different languages: i.e., Russian and English. He is credited with having coined the word nymphet. Ceci n'est pas un seing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Hapax legomenon? Faldage #169506 08/11/2007 5:17 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Quote: You want to give us the context from the Nabokov? Well, it's defininitely not a hapax legomenon... I just came across it in a short story, also by Nabokov. Here's your context: Quote: Just before falling sleep, I often became aware of a one-sided conversation going on in an adjacent section of my mind, quite independent from the actual trend of my thoughts. It is a neutral, detached, anonymous voice, which I catch saying words of no importance to me whatever—an English or a Russian sentence, not even addressed to me, and so trivial that I hardly dare give samples, lest the flatness I wish to convey be marred by a molehill of sense. This silly phenomenon seems to be the auditory counterpart of certain praedormitary visions, which I also know well. —Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited, p.28. Quote: Presently he sleeps, he sleeps, and, since, on his convict's cot, not a single praedormitory thought troubles him ... —Tyrants Destroyed, ch. 14. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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