fun with the dictionary
uncle paul, i was an english major, but i'll be damned if I know what discursive really means. would you be so kind as to elucidate the matter?
Webster's Third gives several definitions, the best for these purposes being 1b, "proceeding logically or coherently from topic to topic," and 2, "reasoning from premises to conclusions or proceeding from particulars to generalizations: utilizing or based upon analytical reasoning—contrasted with intuitive." Both of those are probably overly kind descriptions of my English papers, but I basically meant it as a synonym for expository writing.
"Disherison," on the same page, means the act of disinheriting. That I did not know.
Early on in Don Quijote, when he and Sancho have just gotten together and are about to set out in the world, Sancho asks if he can take a donkey to ride, since he doesn't feel like walking all over Spain.
En lo del asno reparó un poco don Quijote, imaginando si se le acordaba si algún caballero andante había traído escudero caballero asnalmente; pero nunca le vino alguno a la memoria.
The translation I have around here (Ormsby) says, "About the ass, Don Quixote hesitated a little, trying whether he could call to mind any knight-errant taking with him an esquire mounted on ass-back, but no instance occurred to his memory." Which is just fine, except that in English you lose asnalmente as an adverb, which is a damn shame because it is obviously the best adverb ever, meaning as it does "in a manner relating to a donkey," or more briefly, "donkily." (Or "assily," if you like.) Whatever you do today, kids, do it asnalmente.
