(urth) Rudesind / Inire / Lunar Picture

[Jerry Friedman]

On 7/27/2010 4:01 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:

> 
> From: "Jeff Wilson" <jwilson at io.com>
>> Also, "your blue Urth" is ultimately the translator's choice of words,
> not necessarily a literal translation of what Severian recorded.

I don't think we should consider that--it allows us to ignore anything.

"Your
> [item]" is part of an English idiom that is popular among craftsmen who
> work on other people's property, perhaps like an engineer who has been
> hired to improve an existing potato chip production line, and this has
> become a marketing tool where "your" addresses the audience even if they
> don't own the item yet, and even if the crafter is promoting a recipe or
> abstract idea rather than a service.
>> Googling "your basic" yields 2 million + examples of this modest
> variation, but the idiom is at least decades old; "Your Show of Shows"
> debuted in 1950.
> 
> This use of "your" is common in Ireland, and has almost certainly been
> so for generations.. A very common version is "your man" meaning "that
> man", as in "[Do you] see your man over there?".
> 
> Other versions use "your" in place of "the", as in "Your frog, now, [ in
> contrast to some previously mentioned creature] is a more amphibious
> type of fellow".

It's been common in England for a long time too.

Hamlet: Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to 
fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is 
but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.

/Hamlet/, IV 3.

First Clown: Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will not mend 
his pace with beating; and, whenyou are asked this question next, say 'a 
grave-maker:' the houses that he makes last till doomsday.

Ibid., V 1.

First Clown: Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that he will keep 
out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead 
body.

Ibid.


Jerry Friedman