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acetone
Sep 19, 2018 10:29
5 yrs ago
4 viewers *
English term

a quarter of time

English Art/Literary Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
Thus far, she had managed only eleven pages, handwritten in pencil, each page marked by the brown ring of her coffee mug. She had a title, though, which she regarded as a notable achievement, as titles were always so difficult. The scant eleven pages, the sum total of her labors, she regarded less charitably, for her days were nothing if not a vast empty quarter of time.

Not a quarter of any specified period, just "a vast, empty quarter of time". Is it some idiom that I am unfamiliar with?
Responses
2 +4 "an area" of time
4 +1 a desert
4 a very long stretch of time filled with nothing // a large "block of time" of emptiness // ....
4 a duration of time

Discussion

Arabic & More Sep 20, 2018:
For the record, I did not see philgoddard's answer when I posted here. Now that we know the protagonist is from the Arab world, I think there is really no doubt as to the reference. I would not, however, express it as meaning "desert". To address Daryo's comment below (that this desert is not as well known as the Sahara), that is certainly not the case in the Arab world, where pretty much everyone knows of the so-called "empty quarter".
Arabic & More Sep 19, 2018:
@allp Fascinating! Glad that the mystery is mostly solved.
Daryo Sep 19, 2018:
it's basic physics Despite whatever figures of speech would suggest, time has only one dimension, and as far as we are concerned, time moves always in the same direction - from past to future - (unlike movements in the 3-dimensional space).
allp (asker) Sep 19, 2018:
@Daryo I don't feel competent enough to go into details of the time/space relationship and linearity of time, but in Polish we speak about "przestrzeń czasu", where przestrzeń is a combination of space/surface/area and czas is time. So in my language time is not exactly linear. I suppose you might have a similar expression in Serbian?
allp (asker) Sep 19, 2018:
@Amel the protagonist ("she" in the quoted passage) comes from Beirut and speaks Arabic, so the association with the desert name might be very legitimate! It may indeed be the reason for using the word "quarter" instead of some other, more obvious one. Thank you very much.
Arabic & More Sep 19, 2018:
Although I am not sure of his explanation, I also don't disagree with Daryo's suggested interpretations:

a very long stretch of time filled with nothing // a large "block of time" of emptiness // ....
Arabic & More Sep 19, 2018:
So basically what Sheila said, but with more nuance.
Arabic & More Sep 19, 2018:
I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier (considering that Arabic is my source language), but I believe it could be a reference to the "Rub' al Khali" desert (which translates to the "empty quarter"):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub'_al_Khali

I would further interpret this to mean a vast "wasteland" of time but could also go for a vast "empty stretch" of time.
Daryo Sep 19, 2018:
to decipher this ... you need to look at how the meaning of words evolves with time - starting from the most literal meaning, often leading after several connected "shifts" to something that has no obvious connections whatsoever with the initial meaning.

the way it's used here "a quarter of ..." simply means "a distinct fraction of ...", nothing to do with 1/4, nor even with any kind of surface/area ...
Arabic & More Sep 19, 2018:
@Sheila This was also my thought. I think you should enter this as a response.
Sheila Wilson Sep 19, 2018:
Quarter I'd guess that it's using quarter not as a fourth part of something, but as an area, district, e.g. the Latin Quarter of Paris. So her days are a vast, empty area.

Responses

+4
1 hr
Selected

"an area" of time

Difficult to be sure about this as it isn't an idiomatic expression, AFAIK. Maybe it's non-native English, although it doesn't read that way. Maybe an English native speaker who (has) lived abroad for a long while and gained some interference from another language.

But we do sometimes use "quarter" to mean an area, a district in English. Jewish Quarter, Latin Quarter... So this could mean her days were just an empty area of time.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Daryo : time being linear (dimension 1) it would take a lot of imagination to think of time in terms of a "surface/area" (dimension 2)// the key/relevant element is the "distinctiveness" of that fragment of time.
25 mins
That's why "area" is in quotes, Daryo. And yet we do talk of a "space of time"
agree Jack Doughty
2 hrs
Thanks, Jack
agree B D Finch : If time is considered a space, then this is vast empty space within it.
5 hrs
Thanks, B.D., that's a far better explanation
agree Yvonne Gallagher : Just an empty space/stretch of time imo probably with interference from travel or another language
12 hrs
Thanks, Yvonne. It does look like interference.
agree katsy
1 day 7 mins
Thanks
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you, Sheila, for putting me on the right track."
1 hr
English term (edited): a vast empty quarter of time

a very long stretch of time filled with nothing // a large "block of time" of emptiness // ....

the initial meaning of "un quartier" was literally "one quarter" of a typical roman castrum / city divided in four by Via Cardo and Via decumana

La city of Valencia was founded in 138 BC. by the roman consul Decimus Junius Brutus and settled by Italian citizens. The name Valencia is derived from the “valentia” meaning “strength and good courage”.
It was initially built upon a small island in the middle of the river Turia and followed the models of most other roman cities of the time, the two main streets ran perpendicular to each other - the via Cardo running from north to south, and the via Decumana that crossed the city from east to west with the main forum resting on the crossroads of the two.
https://everything2.com/title/Valencia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castra

so "un quartier" is a distinct fraction / part of a town - but the connection to "one quarter" was lost with the passing of time -no one expects nowadays that a town must have 4 "quartiers", but "un quartier" is still seen as a distinct subdivision of the whole town.

By analogy, what is meant in this text by "a quarter of time" is a distinct time interval [certainly NOT 6 hours per day], one "block of time" - like "leisure time" or "time at work" or "travelling time" - a stretch of time that is in some way homogeneous, only in this ST this "stretch of time" is characterised by the fact that "nothing was happening".

It's a rather unusual use of "quarter", but the intended meaning is still easy to decipher.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Sheila Wilson : Can you back up that hypothesis with any references to the word ever being used in that context? // The Asker's context. That's what KudoZ is about after all; not some academic exercise.,
18 mins
which one is "that context"? The Roman city divided in 4 or some of the later shifts in meanings?
neutral B D Finch : Your header terms are OK, but your explanation is over-pedantic. All that's meant is a vast, empty space in time. The use of the term "quarter" is just a rather poor choice of vocabulary.
4 hrs
unusual choice, but the intended meaning is easy to guess.
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+1
2 hrs
English term (edited): an empty quarter of time

a desert

I think it would have been clearer if the author had used capitals, Empty Quarter.

"The Rub' al Khali desert [note 1] (Arabic: الربع الخالي‎, i.e., **"the Empty Quarter")** is the largest contiguous sand desert (erg) in the world,[1] encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula."
Reference:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%27_al_Khali

Note from asker:
Yes, this has already been suggested by Amel Abdullah in the Discussion and I think that's the intended meaning. It also explains the lack of comma between 'vast' and 'empty' in the text. Still, the author probably didn't want to make it too obvious - hence no capitals - rather a hint, leaving room for understanding it simply as a 'stretch of time'.
Peer comment(s):
agree Björn Vrooman : I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you didn't see Amel's d-box post before posting. I'm a sci-fi guy and I think allp could google for "vast expanse of time" to get an idea of how to translate it.
54 mins
Thanks! I posted this long before it was mentioned in the discussion box.
neutral Daryo : it's a possibility, but that would be used only by someone familiar with this desert. Not so well known as say the Sahara.
6 hrs
neutral Yvonne Gallagher : Perhaps, but rather obscure in an English text. You seem to have been 20 mins ahead of Amel...Basically a desert in the sense of an empty space/stretch of time.
10 hrs
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4 hrs

a duration of time

Though the use here makes one inclined to feel 'a quarter' as a part of time, but as per my knowledge and understanding the writer has only meant to imply 'a duration of time' by it. Thanks!
Something went wrong...
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