Subject
Pale Fire's "Backdracht"
From
Date
Body
From Commentary to Line 12: that crystal land"
"Medical care was spreading to the confines of the state: less and less often, on his tour of the country, every autumn, when the rowans hung coral-heavy, and the puddles tinkled with Muscovy glass, the friendly and eloquent monarch would be interrupted by a pertussal "backdraucht" in a crowd of schoolchildren"
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"Pertussal" simply pertains to "cough".
"Backdraucht" is a Scottish term glossed as in (2).
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BACKDRAUCHT, n. ['b?k'dr?xt]
(1) The drawing in of the breath.
*Ags.(D) 1922 J. B. Salmond Bawbee Bowden xii.:
Wi’ the backdraucht [he] sent a moofu’ o’ tea up throo his nose.
*Fif. 1825 Jam.2:
We was whaslin like a blastit stirk i’ the backdraucht.
(2) The gasp of one with whooping-cough.
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"Medical care was spreading to the confines of the state: less and less often, on his tour of the country, every autumn, when the rowans hung coral-heavy, and the puddles tinkled with Muscovy glass, the friendly and eloquent monarch would be interrupted by a pertussal "backdraucht" in a crowd of schoolchildren"
----------------------------------------------------
"Pertussal" simply pertains to "cough".
"Backdraucht" is a Scottish term glossed as in (2).
--------------------------------------------------
BACKDRAUCHT, n. ['b?k'dr?xt]
(1) The drawing in of the breath.
*Ags.(D) 1922 J. B. Salmond Bawbee Bowden xii.:
Wi’ the backdraucht [he] sent a moofu’ o’ tea up throo his nose.
*Fif. 1825 Jam.2:
We was whaslin like a blastit stirk i’ the backdraucht.
(2) The gasp of one with whooping-cough.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm