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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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this usage struck me as being rather unusual:
I moved deeper into the comforting gloom, along a stone walkway covered in cherry blossoms that lay like tenebrous snow in the glow of lamplights to either side. [italics mine]
- Barry Eisler, Hard Rain
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Tenebrous" meaning poorly lighted - I think of twilight - it strikes me that the parsing should be rather "tenebrous snow in the glow of lamplights", referring to the tentative glow, not the snow itself.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sounds to me as if the term is somehow related to Tenebrae -- a choir office sung during Holy Week in which candles are progressively extinguished, leaving the church in total darkness.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Somehow I doubt the author even knew that.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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well, etymyonline definitely gives a link to tenebrae:
tenebrous
"full of darkness," c.1420, from O.Fr. tenebreus (11c.), from L. tenebrosus, from tenebræ "darkness" (see temerity).
Last edited by etaoin; 11/05/05 01:32 AM.
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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old hand
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This phrase looks like an intentional "poetic" oxymoron. Snow is normally associated with blinding brightness. Fallen blossoms evoke death and decay. The combination creates (or is intended to create?) an atmosphere of gloomy suspense.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
… an intentional "poetic" oxymoron.
The word "oxymoron" used in the original sense?! 
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old hand
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old hand
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original sense?!
The sense I had in mind is that of an apparent contradiction in terms, used as a rhetorical (here: poetic) device.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I don't think it's an oxymoron, but contrasting moods. To me, "lamp light," where it refers to outdoor lighting, brings to mind gas light, which is dim to modern eyes.
Tangentially, I saw several cherry trees in bloom in a Newark, NJ park a week or two ago.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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cherry trees in bloom in a Newark, NJ park a week or two ago. !!! Good grief--I've gotten used to seeing violets in October here, but I didn't think you-all would have a "second spring" way up north there. [mutter]danged warm weather[/mutter] [grumble, grumble]
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