Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014973, Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:13:34 -0500

Subject
Re: JF's reply to BB on azure (and blue birds and butterflies)]
Date
Body

>>>>>>>> Note to Jansy: if our Russian speakers tell us the etymology of
/lazur'/, I'll bet the /l/ is not from Persian but the French definite article.


In fact, it is other way round.

The Vasmer etymological dictionary says (in translation); " Old Russian " lazor' "... through Polish lazur, from Mid/Upper German lazu^r, lasu^r "blue stone", which derives from Medieval Latin lazurium, lasurium (Italian l'аzzurо, azurro from lazurro), from Arabic la^zavard...."


th e"blue stone" in question is lapis lazuli with etymology, from Medieval Latin, from Latin lapis + Medieval Latin lazuli, genitive of lazulum lapis lazuli, also from Arabic lAzaward.

The famous poem "Lapis Lazuli" by Yeats (1936) is very much about something coming from the azure:

" For everybody knows or else should know
That if nothing drastic is done
Aeroplane and Zeppelin will come out.
Pitch like King Billy bomb-balls in
Until the town lie beaten flat..."

Note almost complete coincidence with Blok's (1910, i.e. pre-Great War) prophetic "The Aviator": "Nochnoi letun, vo t'me nenastnoi Zemle nesushchii dinamit" ["Night flyer, who in stormy darkness brings the dynamite to earth below"]

In Russian, lapis lazuli is lazurit.

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