Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0013444, Sat, 7 Oct 2006 15:35:18 -0400

Subject
Mica and Muscovites
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Date
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Muscovy: A historical region and former principality in west-central Russia.
Centered on Moscow, it was founded c. 1280 and existed as a separate entity
until the 16th century, when it was united with another principality to form
the nucleus of the early Russian empire. The name was then used for the
expanded territory
a Russian principality in the 13th to 16th centuries; Moscow was the capital

principality- territory ruled by a prince
Russia- a former empire in eastern Europe and northern Asia created in the
14th century with Moscow as the capital; powerful in 17-18th centuries under
Peter the Great and Catherine the Great when Saint Petersburg was the
capital; overthrown by revolution in 1917.

Muśco`vy glass`
1. Mica; muscovite


Ah. Mica, a multilayered soft mineral we here designate by " the gold of
fools"...

Following the same Farflex "The Free Dictionary" on line I found: "Any of a
group of chemically and physically related aluminum silicate minerals,
common in igneous and metamorphic rocks, characteristically splitting into
flexible sheets used in insulation and electrical equipment."
[Latin mica, grain (perhaps influenced by micre, to flash).]

No muscat grape, mouse (mus) nor house-fly (musca). Mica.
(Why would "mica" be a synonim for "muscovite"? Is it some kind of
scientific name for the mineral?)
Jansy

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