[Vwoolf] Larks

Stuart N. Clarke stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com
Tue Sep 17 10:05:52 EDT 2013


“And now, [the aeroplane] curving up and up, straight up, like something mounting in ecstasy, in pure delight, out from behind poured white smoke looping, writing a T, an O, and F.”
Gillian Beer wrote in "The Island and the Aeroplane: The Case of Virginia Woolf":
“Toffs and toffee are lexically indistinguishable, farts in the wake of lark, of sexual rapture.”

Stuart


From: ANNE Fernald [Staff/Faculty [A&S]] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 2:39 PM
To: Toni McNaron 
Cc: woolf list 
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] larks

Here is what my OED tells me about the etymology, which is uncertain but does seem to support a link:


lark, v.2
View as:  a.. Outline | a.. Full entryQuotations:  a.. Show all | a.. Hide all Pronunciation:  /lɑːk/
Etymology:  Belongs to lark n.2; the noun and verb appear first in 1811–3. The origin is somewhat uncertain. 
Possibly it may represent the northern lake v.1, as heard by sporting men from Yorkshire jockeys or grooms; the sound /lɛək/ /læək/ , which is written lairk in Robinson's Whitby Glossary and in dialect books, would to a southern hearer more naturally suggest ‘lark’ than ‘lake’ as its equivalent in educated pronunciation. On the other hand, it is quite as likely that the word may have originated in some allusion to lark n.1; compare the similar use of skylark verb, which is found a few years earlier (1809).




On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 9:27 AM, Toni McNaron <mcnar001 at umn.edu> wrote:

  I agree with Michael Davis in that both the bird and the playful gaminess is going on in the reference.  I also think about the fact that larks, when they flourished, were often the very first birds to greet the dawn, hence they were seen as excited about another day in which they could make beautiful music, fly around, eat bugs, etc.  So a imagine larks as exuberant, hence perhaps how the verb "to lark" came into existence in the first place.

  Toni McNaron 


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-- 

Anne E. Fernald
Director of Writing/Composition at Lincoln Center,
Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies
Fordham University
113 W 60th St.
New York NY 10023

212/636-7613
fernald at fordham.edu




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