M&D, p. 8: "imbecile"

[Dave Monroe]

Thanks!  I do believe this is the first mention of
that here, can't find anything in teh archives, at any
rate, and this is precisely the kind of thing I try to
be on the lookout for, so ...

So very good, Pynchon is indeed a man who knows his
way around a dictionary, around etymolgies, e.g.,
"venery" ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0106&msg=56887

Or "passerine" ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=59200

Thanks again!

--- William Danielson <william.danielson at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> New to the list, apologies if someone's already
> commented on this.  On page 8 of M&D, Rev. C., in
> confessing that he's an unreliable narrator,
compares
> himself to a shipwreck: "stoven, dismasted, imbecile
> with age."  By "imbecile," he literally means that
> age has made him stupid and forgetful, but I got
> curious and looked up "imbecile."  It comes from
> the Latin "imbecillus," meaning "without a
supporting
> staff" (OED).  So just as the wrecked ship of his
> person is "dismasted," it is also "without a staff."
> A neat hidden extension of the metaphor.

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