[lit-ideas] Re: Flew: The Obituary
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2010 00:25:34 EDT
In a message dated 6/4/2010 8:50:47 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
"Escaped" through a flaw in the flue? There's a flaw in the idea of
fleas flying, or possibly in the reality of fleas trying to fly.
Why not the simpler, 'fleed'? Surely it's not as inconceivable to think of
a fly fleeing as it is to conceive a flea flying?
---
Surely, 'flee' and 'fly' are cognate, but they have attached themselves to
different 'implicatures' right now, and the flea could be 'fleeing' only
metaphorically?
JLS
Geary:
"A flea and fly were caught in a flue
and they didn't know what to do.
"Let us flee," said the fly.
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue."
---
to flee
(intransitive) To run away; to escape.
The prisoner tried to flee, but was caught by the guards.
(transitive) To escape from.
Many people fled the country as war loomed.
Thousands of people moved northward trying to flee the drought.
(intransitive) To disappear quickly; to vanish.
Etherical products flee once freely exposed to air
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