« looking up pussy in the dictionary again | Main | Princess of Hares »
I can't find the word "parracial" in English or Spanish in any dictionary. Or in fact anywhere but in this one N3ruda poem. WTF?
***
whoa! My friend J. points out it might be a "hapax legomenon" - a word that only occurs once in the corpus of a language.
It might be a typo... or too archaic (?) to be in the DRAE - but even so...
A hapax legomenon! Cool!
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83452180669e200d83422641453ef
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference looking up parracial in the dictionaries:
» A Name for A Character from I Speak of Dreams
Thanks to Badgerbag, a potentialname for one of my characters. No, not parracial. BTW, Pratchett, who I think is unusually deft with names, blew it with Tiffany Aching. Crivens! It's the Tiffany, not the Aching. It's so Tiffany Case, from [Read More]
» First trimester use of ACE inhibitors implicated in birth defects from defects for babies
babies whose mothers take these medications during the first trimester of pregnancy. [Read More]
» Report: Deal Near on Delphi Worker Buyouts from Street Journal,
Journal, auto parts supplier Delphi is close to reaching a deal with workers on buyouts. [Read More]
» G8 wants Iran to reply next week to nuclear offer from told Iran on
industrialized nations told Iran on Thursday to give a "clear and substantive response" next week to an offer [Read More]
» Youth Coaches Can Get Help Winning Games at Hawk Planners' New Website from get some tips
Hawk Planners has developed an easy-to-use online tool to allow coaches to browse its entire line of youth coaching planners, and [Read More]
This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
Change is good
Interesting. Google also turns up this usage in a paper about Neruda: "Una vez descifrado este enigma subterráneo y parracial que el propio poeta nos dejó como desafío..."
Maybe this is an inside joke: the author was as puzzled by the word as anyone else and set himself the challenge of using it in a sentence, one about an enigma, no less.
Posted by: Prentiss Riddle | October 11, 2004 at 04:55 PM
ooooo. legomenon = great word. i'm going to have to work that in somewhere.
Posted by: leblanc | October 12, 2004 at 09:37 AM
aaaaahhh! apparently it means a sort of climbing vine sort of thing... the root "parra"...
Posted by: badgerbag | October 12, 2004 at 03:37 PM