[bookshare-discuss] Re: OT: Barathrum
- From: "Amy Goldring Tajalli" <agoldringtajalli@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:22:26 -0400
Dear Grandma,
Trust you to come through with obscure info I could not find. I googled and
got nowhere and, of course, subscriptions I have none. The Finnish rock group
was from Wikipedia so I thank you for the definitions that fit what Hugo was
writing as he was talking about the lowest hole in the sewers in Paris @ 1832
(time of uprising in the last section of Les Miserable. This is my fourth (?)
reading of the book and am taking the time to look up some words and make
annotations but I have a small problem.
I am using an Adobe Reader [PDF] copy of the book which allows me to highlight
and make all sorts of notes and annotations BUT they disappear when I close the
book and are somewhere but not visible when I go back. Once in a while some
show up again but then are gone and while I have tried various formulas I
cannot seem to get them to stay. I am old fashioned and have habits from my
days as a fully-sighted text reader with notes all over my books and get
frustrated when I cannot do the same or find them afterwards [afterwords -
smile] . Any help herewith will be appreciated.
I must admit authors and, even worse, translators confound me. The Charles
Wilbur translation is one of the best I could find without being "edited" or
"modified" or who-knows-what and without being stated but most of the poetry
herein is not translated, not even the long ballads. Why does he think I want
a translation if he thinks (does he?) I know enough French to read the poetry?
Random House should know better. I am working on finding the poetry in
question with the help of a local computer-very-literate librarian. In this
case it is not a problem of no information but of much to much information but
not quite specific enough. I am beginning to realize how absolutely spoiled I
was when I could just go down to the University Library [actually any one of 5
universities and numerous libraries in each] to do the research. I thought
having a computer doing the walking and part of the seeing would be easier -
more fool me.
Thanks for the help and, as always, for letting me vent my frustrations.
Amy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Grandma Cindy" <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 2:57 PM
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: OT: Barathrum
>I love research questions like this. Bring them
> on--grin
>
> Unfortunately the Oxford English Dictionary online is
> bysubscription only, and my Skeats etymological
> dictionary doesn't have the word, BUT!!
>
> google is wonderful. Googling found these two
> definitions:
>
>
> From the 2004 Scripps National Spelling Bee
> Consolidated Word List:
>
> barathrumâ?"nounâ?"From Greek to Latinâ?"a bottomless
> pit or abyss: a place or state of misery or torment.
> "The motivational speaker said that her early life was
> a barathrum which she was fortunate to have survived.
>
> From about.com:
>
> obscure words: barathrum
>
> [L., from Gk., a pit, gulf] a) a deep pit at Athens,
> into which condemned criminals were thrown
> b) the abyss, hell c) an insatiable extortioner or
> glutton
>
> HTH
>
> Cindy
>
> --- Amy Goldring Tajalli
> <agoldringtajalli@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Assistance needed:
>>
>> Barathrum is a word used by Hugo in Les Miserables
>> in reference to the bottom of one of or the worst
>> sewer. in Paris. I cannot find it in any of my
>> available dictionaries but only as the name of a
>> Finish Heavy Metal Rock band and it is possible, but
>> I was not sure, carrying the Finish meaning of "dark
>> metal". Since it is only one word out of 1280 pages
>> I should not let it bother me but it does.
>>
>> Any more information of a more probable definition
>> in a book written by a Frenchman in 1875 in the
>> Channel Isles would be appreciated.
>>
>> Amy
>> omsm in Miami
>>
>
>
>
>
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