Monday, August 20, 2012

Riparian

Meaning: to do with river banks

Usefulness: 2-3 (depends where you live)

Logofascination: 3

In the wild: I found it in one of the flock of books I have read this year, but since that's not very convincing I will direct you to Hyacinth for further information.

Degrees: 2

Connections: riparian - river

Which is used in: Used 47 times in Gargantua and Pantagruel, first appears in First Book, V: The Discourse of the Drinkers. "Come, let us drink:  will you send nothing to the river?  Here is one going to wash the tripes.  I drink no more than a sponge.  I drink like a Templar knight.  And I, tanquam sponsus.*  And I, sicut terra sine aqua.**  Give me a synonymon for a gammon of bacon.  It is the compulsory of drinkers:  it is a pulley.  By a pulley-rope wine is let down into a cellar, and by a gammon into the stomach. Hey! now, boys, hither, some drink, some drink." (I'm not sure if the dialogue is all piled up like this in non-free versions, but it is rather reminiscent of conversations in the pub.)


* like a bridegroom, Google Translate tells me. I'm getting an annotated version soon, but in the meantime, in Google confidimus.

**like a land without water: Psalm 63:1, perchance?

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