AtD translation: a-thrum with excitement

[Mark Kohut]

I am trying to prove to all who don't listen to me that Pynchon is
Shakespearean. Smile.

On Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 1:44 PM bulb <bulb at vheissu.net> wrote:

> Pynchon uses that construct 8 times in AtD:
>
> a-blush - AD Three 37.3: 506-510  p. 509
> a-bustle - AD Two 25.1: 296-304  p. 302 (dice tables - with challenge,
> insult and imprecation)
> a-jitter - AD Two 27.4: 348-351  p. 350
> a-riot - AD Two 27.5: 351-353  p. 351 (silk brocade - with Oriental
> scenes)
> a-seethe - AD Three 38.2: 531-540  p. 533
> a-shine - AD Three 32.4: 445-448  p. 446 (brass fittings [...] -)
> a-thrill - AD Two 27.3: 343-347  p. 346
> a-thrum - AD Two 21.5: 255-255  p. 255
>
> Michel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pynchon-l <pynchon-l-bounces at waste.org> On Behalf Of Mark Kohut
> Sent: dinsdag 26 maart 2019 18:27
> To: Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Subject: Re: AtD translation: a-thrum with excitement
>
> Ditto.....
>
> A--and, I just want to add that in the organic history of word Creation in
> English, many words which evolve to dropping the dash between a and the
> rest or dropping the a altogether have happened.
>
> Google a Shakespeare Concordance and see a long list of them, including
> a-bed, a-sleep and others I've already forgotten.
> P loves many olde words and roots, etc....
>
> So, a linguistic playing-with homage to word roots as well, maybe.
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 1:18 PM Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Great post,  Douglas!   Thanks.   (And welcome to pynchon-l.)
> >
> > Becky
> >
> > > On Mar 26, 2019, at 7:25 AM, Douglas Johnson <dmj at panix.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Mar 26, 2019, at 07:58, Mike Jing wrote:
> > >
> > >> P255.1-6 Chick greeted his shipmates, who were a-thrum with
> > >> excitement What does "a-thrum" mean?
> > >
> > > "A-thrum" is Pynchon playing with language. English occasionally
> > > uses
> > the prefix "a-" to mean "in such a condition" Some examples are
> "aflutter,"
> > "aflame," and "acrawl."
> > >
> > > "Athrum" isn't a proper English word (in the sense of being found in
> > > the
> > dictionary). Rather, "a-thrum" is the result of Pynchon combining the
> "a-"
> > prefix with "thrum" in an inventive, playful manner. (In US English,
> > it's not uncommon to hyphenate such a temporary compound rather than
> > close it
> > up.)
> > >
> > > In this case, "a-thrum" means (essentially) "thrumming." I'm curious
> > > how
> > a translator would capture the wordplay here.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Douglas Johnson
> > > dmj at panix.com
> > > OpenPGP fingerprint: 3E0E 6D19 80BE A504 1C02  8E19 DB21 0C1A 8CB7
> > > 8135
> > > --
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