----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Netherton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<<He did not indicate a tilde on the n, but that may have been his
omission.>>
Definitely a common omission--and the definition of "paño" fits so well I'd
bet that's what happened.
<<My colleague's exact words in his e-mail were "she asked in a wedding
context for a prendero of bermejo pano." ...From the little he did give me,
it sounds like we can be no more specific than "she asked for a red cloth."
And nothing that would imply ribbon, or wool, or scarlet (as opposed to red
in general).>>
Hrm. From what I know of the words involved, "she asked for a red cloth"
definitely seems like a reasonable translation. The word as I know it would
in a sense be related to the idea of giving or a gift, and the word could
easily have changed senses a bit over the centuries anyway--my favorite
example has always been the word "doubt." ("I doubt he'll be there" used to
mean "I'm afraid he'll be there" but now means "I'm afraid he won't be
there.")
For that matter, if she's asking for a wedding gift (or perhaps shopping for
her wedding/obtaining items for her dowry?) scarlet cloth might not be quite
so odd a thing for her to want!
...And something just struck me; if the author was referring to a
red-colored piece of fabric, I would have expected him to say "paño bermejo"
rather than "bermejo paño," which puts the adjective in the wrong
order--like calling something "a cloth red." That, on top of that odd
implied thingness that I'm having such a hard time putting into words (i.e.,
you can say a thing is "un bermejo" whereas in English we wouldn't say a
thing is "a red") DOES suddenly suggest scarlet, in the sense of a specific
type of fabric, a lot more than it did at first glance.
-E House
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
h-costume@mail.indra.com
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
