MDMD(2): Notes and Questions

[Matthew P Wiener]

>     72.4  [...]

>     `Nervus Probandi' literally, a nerve to be prodded - Pynchon's
>     ham C18th for `sore point', perhaps?

Your "literally" is bizarre.  "nervus" can mean a lot of things,
either physical body parts like muscle, tendon, sinew, or more
metaphorically for strength in general.  "probandi" is a gerund
for "tested", "shown", and the like.  "Heart of the matter" is
probably what it actually means.

Pynchon hamming it up?  No, he did not make that one up--it is a
genuine, if very obscure, Latin phrase.  It is used by Immanuel
Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason, in part II, re the second
paralogicism of transcendental psychology.  (I have not checked
the original German, but I can't imagine the translator actually
introducing such a phrase.)

However, Pynchon's use sounds more like Dixon referring to some
Quaker doctrine or text even.
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)