GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW) | ||||||
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17:11 Oct 14, 2009 |
English to Italian translations [PRO] Poetry & Literature | |||||||
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| Selected response from: MelissiM Italy | ||||||
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Summary of answers provided | ||||
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4 +6 | tipo furtivo-strisciante-subdolo |
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tipo furtivo-strisciante-subdolo Explanation: http://www.archive.org/stream/transact186100philuoft/transac... -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 3 mins (2009-10-14 17:15:19 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- In the Townl. Mysteries (p. 68) the curious term snoke- horn occurs, with the meaning 'a sneaking fellow'. I be- lieve this to be another form of snake-horn, i. e. snail-horn. In confirmation of this conjecture I would mention that snail-horn is still used in the Midland Counties for a snail; and in Norfolk the same term is applied to a short stunted horn curved downwards. In further confirmation of my con- jecture I may appeal to the kindred word slug-horn which is thus explained by Forby: "a short and ill-formed horn of an animal of the ox kind, turned downwards and ap- pearing to have been stunted in its growth. Perhaps it may have been contemptuously named thus, from some fancied resemblance to that common reptile called the slug, the snail without a shell." Snoke-horn then seems to mean literally a mail, and then 'a fellow that crawls silently in'. The word sneak is of the same origin as snake , each mean- ing 'a noiseless creeper". |
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