Word of the Day ...

[Dave Monroe]

A.Word.A.Day--prufrockian

http://wordsmith.org/words/prufrockian.wav

http://wordsmith.org/words/prufrockian.ram

Fact and fiction often feed on each other. And it's
reflected in the names: a fictional character would be
named to reflect his or her qualities. In turn, these
characters often come alive in our imagination and we
begin to use them to refer to real people.

While eponyms -- words derived from people's names --
can be from real people as well as from fictional
characters, all of this week's eponymy features
fictional sources.

The five characters we present include the hero of a
poem, the subject of a book dedication, a character in
a comic strip, the hero of an operetta, and a
character in an animated series. It's quite a cast
across a wide genre. Let the parade begin.

Prufrockian (pru-FROK-i-uhn) adjective

Marked by timidity and indecisiveness, and beset by
unfulfilled aspirations.

[After the title character in T.S. Eliot's poem "The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".]

Prufrock, the aging hero of Eliot's 1915 poem, is
haunted by his cautious, hesitant approach to life and
his conforming existence,
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."

He wonders about the possible romances he didn't dare
broach,
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"

If only he knew Tennyson's 1850 lines:
"'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."

Listen to Eliot read his poem aloud.

http://salon.com/audio/2000/10/05/eliot/

-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

"Striking the Prufrockian pose, [character Ben Sippy]
worries about his decaying body, the romances he
passed up as a youth, the timidities of his life."
David Brooks; Books; The Wall Street Journal (New
York); Oct 6, 1988.

http://wordsmith.org/words/prufrockian.html


		
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