Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Curtalax
or curtle ax, if you prefer; either way, it's a lost word that means cutlass. I'm going to go out on a limb and wager that we've got a whole bunch of English words for weapons that are quietly disappearing (or slinking away in shame). It reminds me of a class I took with the venerable C. M. Naim on the Urdu Marsiya. Every week, we'd translate sections of a marsiya as homework; in class, we'd take turns reading and sharing our translations. What an exhausting experience. Urdu seems to have about 500 words for "sword," and the average marsiya pretty much uses each and every one. The only book I opened that winter was Platt's Dictionary.
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2 comments:
Hi tricksy-mind Laura, Guess what? My name means sword blade. What a great inspiration, I've been looking for a new name, maybe I'll look in the weapons. Something sharp but a little clumsy, something deadly and shiny. I'll have to think about it. Any suggestions?
Your writing is wonderful. I love your blog.
love,
brenda
Thank you, Brenda! I'm so glad you stopped by. Sword blade, huh? You lucky thing. How about shamshir? It means "curved like a lion's claw". But it's not at all clumsy. How about claymore? It takes two hands to handle that! (smile) And then there's Francisca, which is apparently a throwing axe. Oh, I could do this all day!
Love,
Laura
P.S. Wish I could be joining all the fun with you guys in NYC this month. Sigh.
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