[lit-ideas] "Brains" (Was: Milky Way)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:17:09 EDT
M. Chase quotes from an Ancient author on the 'Milky Way':
>For it was not possible for the sons of Zeus to
>have a share of the heavenly honors unless one of them sucked on Hera's
>breast. Therefore they say that Hermes brought Heracles after his birth
>and set him to Hera's breast, and he sucked.
Interestingly. I guess this relates (or is the reverse of) the idiomatic
plural of 'brains' to mean 'big brain'. Apparently, 'breasts' was _dual_ in
Old
English, so the use of the singular must be idiomatic here?
Cheers,
JL
-----
From the OED
'breast' [OE. bréost = OFris. briast, OS. briost, breost, ON. brjóst, (Sw.
bröst, Da. bryst) neuter, answering to an OTeut. type *breusto(m):
represented in Goth. by brusts fem. pl. (no sing.)
:OTeut. *brust-s consonantal fem., â??prob. originally inflected as a dualâ??
(Kluge), whence OHG. (MHG., mod.Ger.) brust fem., MLG. (MDu., Du.) borst fem.
(with metathesis of r).
The term is confined to Teutonic, there being no common Indo-Europ. name for
the breast. As to the form and derivation, see below. OE. éo became normally
ME. , ee, mod. ee (), and in Sc. and north dial. breast rimes with priest;
but in Standard Eng., the e has been shortened before the two consonants; the
spellings breast and brest run side by side from 16th to 18th c.; in current
usage we spell breast and pronounce brest.
The difference of vowel in OTeut. *breust-, *brust- is explained by the fact
that all monosyllabic consonantal stems had originally shifting stress, with
corresponding ablaut (*breust-s, *brust-óz); the neuter gender in OE., OS.,
and ON. by the supposition that *breust-s was orig. inflected as a dual (the
two breasts) of which the nom. and acc. *breustô- would later become
*breust, bréost, which after the loss of the dual would naturally be treated
as
neuter pl., as in other known instances. Even in senses 2, 5, the plural was
usual in OE., as exclusive in Gothic. *Breust- cannot be connected with
berstan,
brestan to burst: but it may be related to the OS. verb. brustian to bud, and
be a root-noun from a vb. *breust-an (see Lexer under brust), a specialized
derivative of *breut-an (i.e. *breut-stan, *breustan; cf. *brek-stan,
brestan, f. brek-an). The â??breastsâ?? would thus be orig. the mammæ or
paps, likened
to â??budsâ?? or â??sproutsâ??. See further Kluge Beiträge VIII. 510.]
Each of the two soft protuberances situated on the thorax in females, in
which the milk is secreted for the nourishment of their young; the mamma; also
the analogous rudimentary organ of males, the mammilla. Hence, in phrases to
give, have, put to, the breast; an infant at the breast, past the breast.
(Properly said of women, but sometimes of the lower animals.) Also: The front
of
the thorax or chest, the fore-part of the body, lying between the neck and
the belly. (In OE. usually in the plural, for original dual.) Also: fig. and
transf. The seat of the affections and emotions; the repository of
consciousness, designs, and secrets; the heart; hence, the affections, private
thoughts
and feelings. (Commonly pl. in OE.)
560 A. D. Beowulf (Z.) 552
"Beado "Beado broden on breostum bro golde g golde .
1000 Ags. Gosp. John xiii. 25
Th he hlinode ofer thae haelendes breostum [Lindisf. G. onufa breost th. o
haelendes.
1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xi. 27
Th breost [Lindisf. titto, vel breosto] th thou sucke.
1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 182
<NOB <NOBR sare, & th th breosta.
1000 Cædmon's Gen. (Gr.) 656
<NOB th mod wesan mod w on breostum.
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