Learning New Words with Lymond: E is for Epopee

Welcome back to Learning New Words with Lymond, in which I blog my way through the rare and obscure words used by Dorothy Dunnett in The Game of Kings. Over the six books of the Lymond Chronicles, we follow the misadventures of the title character, Francis Crawford of Lymond, across the sixteenth century world, from Scotland to Russia. Dunnett is known for the beauty of her writing and notorious for the complexity of her language.

Dorothy Dunnett, The Game of Kings

In these posts, I explore Dunnett's many sesquipedalians. What do these words mean? Why do they make sense in context? How do they enhance our understanding and enjoyment of what is happening in the story? This occasional series wends its through the alphabet from A to Z.

We continue with words beginning with the letter 'e'...

eddish

The lids veiled Lymond's eyes as they disengaged. "Reaping the eddish. Try the other side next time." p. 416 

Eddish is the grass which remains after mowing or haying, so "reaping the eddish" is trying to cut down something that isn't there. An apt and biting comment from Lymond on his brother's failure to wound him during their duel. Unbeknownst to Richard, Lymond is protected by bandaging from a previous injury. A good fight scene isn't just exciting, it tells us something about the character of the fighters, and we learn so much about the brothers Crawford in this one.

eidelweiss

The last thing Janet saw was Sybilla's head, like eidelweiss on some black, mirrored tarn. p. 473

Sybilla, Lymond's mother, has beautiful white hair. Edelweiss (the extra 'i' seems to be a typo) is "an Alpine plant, Gnaphalium Leontopodium or Leontopodium alpinum, remarkable for its white flower, growing in rocky places, often scarcely accessible, on the Swiss mountains. Also attrib., as in edelweiss-lace." (OED)

encycsted

"And yet you rather expected Richard to read your mind, didn't you? You thought he pictured you encysted forever with pots and pans--A woman is. a worthy thing; they do the wash and do the wring. And so on. Whereas--" p. 355 

A literal or figurative way to describe something enclosed in a cyst, capsule, or bag. This is such a fun, wise conversation between Sybilla and her daughter-in-law, Mariotta, about the many ways husbands and wives can have a good relationship with one another.

enteere

Come, my friend, my brother most enteere; for thee I offered my blood in sacrifice; and all that. Except that it was Janet Beaton's blood. p. 460

The word can be an adjective meaning whole or complete, but when used of people it can also mean "wholly devoted to another, perfectly beloved." Later, it was used of friends or friendly conversation to mean "unreserved, familiar, intimate." Used by Lymond when speaking to Richard, as they make their peace with each other.  

enteric

"Oh my dear, Catherine has made enough martyrs without adding more. I shall tell Dandy you drained every drop and left in a state of enteric rapture: only remember to fib when you see him." p. 261

Sometimes, when reading Dunnett, I am convinced that Sybilla, Lymond's mother, and Honoria, Dowager Duchess of Denver (Lord Peter Wimsey's mother) would have got on like a house afire, innocent bystanders fleeing into the night, no survivors, et cetera. They have a similarly elliptical, even malapropistic, way of speaking. An enteric fever is typhoid; as a noun, the word is used to refer to a medication to treat diseases of the digestive tract; as an adjective, it relates to the intestines or digestive tract in general. Like her son, Sybilla can tell the truth in such a roundabout fashion that it sounds like a lie: as is revealed later in the book, if Richard had drunk Catherine Hunter's nostrum, he would indeed have become a martyr, and his stomach would have been in anything but raptures.

Epaminondas

"Do you think if you didn't clutch them to your chest like Epaminondas and his javelin, your affairs might be less ruinous?" p. 303

Epaminondas (419/411-362 BCE) was a Theban general and statesman, responsible both for freeing his city from the domination of Sparta and, in later historians' estimation, leaving it vulnerable to annihilation at the hands of Alexander the Great a few decades after his death. The javelin seems to be a reference to the account of his death given by the Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos:

He was also an able speaker, so that no Theban was a match for him in eloquence; nor was his language less pointed in brief replies than elegant in an elaborate speech. [At the battle of Mantinea, while his Boeotians were winning the day, he was mortally wounded by a javelin]: when he saw that if he drew out the iron head of the dart he would instantly die, he kept it in until they told him "that the Boeotians were victorious." "I have lived long enough," he then said, "for I die unconquered." The iron head was then extracted, and at once he died.

epopee

I should make a wonderful epopee, don't you think? p. 304

Christian Stewart is one of the few characters in Game of Kings around whom Lymond lets down his guard and one of the only ones in the entire series to not only return his verbal serves but even beat him at his own game. (Epaminondas and his javelin is her pointed comment on Lymond's dangerous habit of playing his cards close to his chest.) Lymond, who has spent the previous page dancing a desperate tarantella around explaining to her what is really going on with him, concludes with the truth and a bit of self-mockery. An epopee (pronounced, despite its French origins, exactly as it looks, eh-poh-pee) is an epic poem. Christian gives this the response it deserves.

escharotic

The carrying, escharotic voice was thick with sheer cold fury for half a dozen words, and then he had it controlled. p. 526

 An eschar is, according to the dictionary, a "a brown or black dry slough, resulting from the destruction of a living part, either by gangrene, by burn, or by caustics." (OED.) An escharotic is something that causes an eschar; in other words, it's a beautiful early modern synonym for caustic. Would this passage, which describes Lymond's tone of voice in the dramatic courtroom scene at the end of the book, land the same if the sentence began "the carrying, caustic voice...?" Or does using the word escharotic allow Dunnett to strengthen the sentence's euphonious series of c-sounds by slipping in two for the price of one? Caustic would do the same. Once again, I am made wildly curious about what Dunnett was reading to come up with some of these words. As of about 2010, escharotic occured 0.005 times per million words (OED).

ethological

"For all his ethological small talk," Lymond said. "You must decide on the data you have." p. 324

Much of the plot of Game of Kings hinges on Lymond attempting to capture the testimony necessary to prove his innocence, without explaining what he is doing or why. Ethological is a highfalutin' synonym for ethical; in John Stuart Mill, it also describes something "of or relating to the study or formation of human character." (OED) Ethology, delightfully, sometimes means "the portrayal of character by gestures; the representation of character through action," something at which Dunnett excels. (OED)

Eulenspiegel

She said tartly, "It doesn't help to find oneself bedevilled with persons making Eulenspiegel-like appearances. I live for the day when we can be formally introduced. Don't you think it would be better than coming to me like--" p. 302

I really should have recognized this one! Till Eulenspiegel is a figure from medieval German folklore, a trickster whose practical jokes expose his contemporaries' folly and hypocrisy. There's a fairly famous tone poem by Richard Strauss "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks," which I recommend listening to if you don't know it.

exigent

Threave, pockmarked and exigent, hung above them. p. 342

Threave is a Scottish castle on a riverine island; while describing it as pockmarked makes sense (as Dunnett describes, it has been the site of decades of violence); I'm puzzled by what to make of exigent in this context. As a noun it means "a state of pressing need; a time of extreme necessity; a critical occasion, or one that requires immediate action or aid; an emergency, an extremity" (with related meanings or needs or quantifiable requirements); as an adjective, it can mean "necessary, requisite, needful" or "requiring immediate action or aid; pressing, urgent" or "requiring a great deal; demanding more than is reasonable; exacting" or "strongly desirous; much in need" (with or without the word of). (OED)