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#28553 05/07/01 12:57 PM
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I'm reading the new Pulitzer Prize winner, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon. In Part IV, Chapter 7 he uses the word aetataureate. The quote is "...the usual hallmark of the aetataureate delusion." I cannot find aetataureate in any dictionary. HELP!! What does it mean? Thanks!!


#28554 05/07/01 01:06 PM
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Sounds like a Latinate way of saying "golden years" or "golden age".


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By George! I think Dr. W has got it!


From "aetatis."

#28556 05/07/01 01:21 PM
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Well, I googled it, and this was the first hit. Looks like you're not alone:

http://www.bookcritics.org/criticscircle/msg/10000035


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Yeah! Looks good to me, Dr. Bill and Ann


#28558 05/07/01 06:25 PM
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Welcome, drbubbles.
I couldn't make sense of the Latin-English dictionaries, but the Latin-French one was great! I'll stick in my translations of the French.

aetas, atis, f. (abrév. de aevitas; gén. plur. aetatum, qqf. aetatium) : - 1 - âge, partie de la vie.essentially, old age. - 2 - durée de la vie, vie d'un homme..duration of life, the life of a man
(person) - 3 - génération. - 4 - temps, siècle, époque, période. .times, century, epoch, period.
- flos aetatis : la fleur de l'âge, la première jeunesse.
- ab ineunte aetate : dès le jeune âge.
- aetas provecta : âge avancé.
- aetatem agere (gerere) : vivre, passer sa vie.
- aetate nostrâ : de nos jours.
- aetate, adv. : depuis longtemps; avec le temps.
- in aetate, adv. : de temps en temps, quelquefois.
- aetatem, adv. : toujours, toute la vie; longtemps.
- mala aetas, Plaut. Men. 5.2.6 : la vieillesse.
- aetas, aevitas = senectus : la vieillesse.

aetatium = aetatum, gén. plur. de aetas.


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Golden years looks good to me. The aetataureate delusion would refer to the notion that old age is fun.

Can we have the front end of the quote, drbubbles? See does it make sense?


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Faldage tentatives: The aetataureate delusion would refer to the notion that old age is fun.

You never know till you try.

If DrBubbles doesn't reply before I have a chance to, I'm planning on checking out the book Wednesday and having me a read. So I can fill you in on the context.


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aetat - aged
aureate - decorated with gold (both in W3)


#28562 05/07/01 10:42 PM
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First, let me apologize if I'm not answering you all correctly. Hopefully, all of you who have so kindly replied will read this. "Golden age" makes sense as a definition as Part IV of this book is called "The Golden Age." The complete quote is: "During 1941, in the wake of that outburst of gaudy hopefulness, the World's Fair, a sizable portion of the citizens of New York City had the odd experience of feeling for the time in which they were living, at the very moment they were living in it, that strange blend of optimism and nostalgia which is the usual hallmark of the aetataureate delusion."


#28563 05/07/01 10:45 PM
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Well, er... there you go, then. [confused look]


#28564 05/08/01 01:05 PM
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Yeah, that makes sense as Golden Age, but not Golden Years. I guess I just never thought that people in a Golden Age, (e.g. the Golden Age of Science Fiction) would realize that they were in a Golden Age. Maybe that's what the author means by delusion.


#28565 05/08/01 01:24 PM
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consider the context. it's 1941 in New York. the Great Depression has ended and prosperity is returning... the War Machine is in full swing, but we're not at war... but the rosy isolation can't last, it's a delusion (a *World's Fair??) and Dec. 7 is just around the corner.


#28566 05/09/01 09:55 AM
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1941 - and John Belushi is using a P40 to destroy a gas station outside LA? That 1941?



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#28567 05/09/01 01:34 PM
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>John Belushi is using a P40 to destroy a gas station outside LA? That 1941?

no... that would be the Hollywood 1941.


#28568 05/10/01 06:11 AM
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no... that would be the Hollywood 1941.

Well, it's the only one youngsters like me can remember. [skitters away tittering at his amazing wit -e]



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#28569 05/10/01 05:43 PM
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Hollywood 1941.Well, it's the only one youngsters like me can remember


Keep it up, soon-not-to-be-so-Capital Kiwi. Just keep it up!
You are planning to get to UK via USA, aren't you?
We have friends .....


#28570 05/10/01 06:06 PM
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>John Belushi is using a P40 to destroy a gas station outside LA? That 1941?

no... that would be the Hollywood 1941.

Bakersfield, it was, I believe.


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