This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
English language (monolingual) [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / Criticism of the church at the time of Chaucer
English term or phrase:spindrift
Explanation: ... close connection between crown and church gave the cardinals, bishops and popes a desire to live like the Lords and princes with whom they interacted on a daily basis ... corruption, spindrift and nepotism ran rampant.
Later:
... he sympathized with the Lollard movement, or at the very least, with the message they preached against church spindrift.
This is a thesis I am proofreading. Most of it a delightful return to some of my mis-spent student days...
It is written in English and there is no source text. Mostly good, so I am completely stymied by the word cropping up in this context. The subject is Chaucer, satire, and of course the society of his time with court intrigues, and the Hundred Years' War, the Peasants' Revolt and John Wyclif and the Lollards in the background.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary has: spindrift noun 1 spray blown from the crests of waves by the wind. 2 driving snow. – origin C17 (originally Scots): variant of spoondrift, from archaic spoon ‘run before wind or sea’ + drift.
Merriam-Webster concurs, but it is not even in my other dictionaries.
Does my client mean something connected with 'spendthrift' and extravagance? I will ask, of course, but wondered if anyone had any ideas.
Interesting! Last night I was thinking along the lines of spin (doctoring|) or just going with the wind/flow but figured it had some other archaic meaning. Now, with the author's intention confirmed, it looks like Phil's "profligacy" would fit best
is what I have probably seen... Gorgeous Shetland wool, so I thought spindrift was something like gossamer. There are some place names, too. They are all positive associations, absolutely not suitable here.
@ Charles Davis Sorry for your disappointment, I feel it too! I'm going to read the Canterbury Tales again this weekend... writers these days just don´t have the same vocabulary, and it's almost humiliating to find a modern Dane who has. You simply have to forgive him for two or three mistakes in 30 000 words! I'd love to know where he found spindrift...
I recognised this word immediately. "Spindrift" is the title of an unreadable novel by Lady Florence Craye, the beautiful, fearsomely intellectual and intolerably bossy fiancee of Bertie Wooster in the P.G. Wodehouse stories. I have never seen or heard the word used anywhere else. And it turns out to be a mistake here after all!
The client said it was the word spendthrift he had in mind, in Danish ødselhed, or ødsel as an adjective. Spendthrift would then fit quite well. Pity it doesn´t work as a noun!
It's his thesis, so I must not interfere, but he does mention the intrigues and payoffs elsewhere.
I have asked, but have not received an answer yet.
I am wondering if he imagines it is a noun, meaning something like ´spendthrift-ness´ or whatever it would be. Something to do with spending. His English is generally excellent, but he is a little shaky on things like adjectives/adverbs, which are not always different in Danish.
IMO it's clearly an error. But spendthrift, being usually an adjective, would not be appropriate here. Extravagance looks good, but a discreet questioning of the author would be advisable.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
53 mins confidence:
constant bickering
Explanation: my guess at extrapolating meaning. Alternatively "ebb and flow"?
Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.
You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs
(or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.
