Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
down
English answer:
here: a large open plain on elevated land
Added to glossary by
Charles Davis
Jul 30, 2012 13:44
12 yrs ago
English term
brings down
English
Other
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
A hill or a depression?
The spot set apart for the festival, was a spacious ------------------down, -------------------------mantled with white asters; which, waving in windrows, lay upon the land, like the cream-surf surging the milk of young heifers. But that whiteness, here and there, was spotted with strawberries; tracking the plain, as if wounded creatures had been dragging themselves bleeding from some deadly encounter. All round the down, waved scarlet thickets of sumach, moaning in the wind, like the gory ghosts environing Pharsalia the night after the battle; scaring away the peasants, who with bushel-baskets came to the jewel-harvest of the rings of Pompey's knights.
Beneath the heaped turf of this down, lay thousands of glorious corpses of anonymous heroes, who here had died glorious deaths.
The spot set apart for the festival, was a spacious ------------------down, -------------------------mantled with white asters; which, waving in windrows, lay upon the land, like the cream-surf surging the milk of young heifers. But that whiteness, here and there, was spotted with strawberries; tracking the plain, as if wounded creatures had been dragging themselves bleeding from some deadly encounter. All round the down, waved scarlet thickets of sumach, moaning in the wind, like the gory ghosts environing Pharsalia the night after the battle; scaring away the peasants, who with bushel-baskets came to the jewel-harvest of the rings of Pompey's knights.
Beneath the heaped turf of this down, lay thousands of glorious corpses of anonymous heroes, who here had died glorious deaths.
Change log
Jul 30, 2012 13:44: changed "Kudoz queue" from "In queue" to "Public"
Aug 6, 2012 10:20: Charles Davis Created KOG entry
Responses
+2
10 mins
Selected
a large open plain, usually on elevated land
The term, I take it, is "down", as in the source text, rather than "brings down".
My answer is a direct quotation of Webster's 1828 definition:
http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/down
Nowadays, in British English particularly, it implies a gently rolling hill, and is often used in the plural, but I am pretty sure Melville means a plain.
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Note added at 18 mins (2012-07-30 14:02:59 GMT)
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In the 1913 revised edition of Webster's dictionary, the definition has changed to "a flattish-topped hill; -- usually in the plural" (ie. "downs").
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=down&us...
This definition corresponds to modern usage, but Melville's text is quite a lot earlier, and I think he is using the word in the older sense.
Dr Johnson's definition, from the mid-eighteenth century, is "a large open plain, properly the flat on the top of a hill".
http://archive.org/stream/dictionaryenglis01john#page/570/mo...
The word is actually derived from a word meaning hill, but from about 1300 it meant "elevated rolling grassland":
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=down
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Note added at 11 hrs (2012-07-31 01:01:22 GMT)
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I am pretty sure that "down" does not mean "plain" nowadays (modern dictionaries do not list this meaning), so this usage is obsolete, but the definitions from Johnson and Webster show that it was current when Melville wrote this text in the 1840s. It wasn't just any plain, but specifically a high plain at the top of a hill.
A series of little hills is "downs", plural; a down, in modern English, is a single hill (a gently sloping hill, not a steep one). "Spacious" is much more likely to be applied to a plain than a hill, and as a place to hold a festival, a plain is more likely.
My answer is a direct quotation of Webster's 1828 definition:
http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/word/down
Nowadays, in British English particularly, it implies a gently rolling hill, and is often used in the plural, but I am pretty sure Melville means a plain.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 18 mins (2012-07-30 14:02:59 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
In the 1913 revised edition of Webster's dictionary, the definition has changed to "a flattish-topped hill; -- usually in the plural" (ie. "downs").
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=down&us...
This definition corresponds to modern usage, but Melville's text is quite a lot earlier, and I think he is using the word in the older sense.
Dr Johnson's definition, from the mid-eighteenth century, is "a large open plain, properly the flat on the top of a hill".
http://archive.org/stream/dictionaryenglis01john#page/570/mo...
The word is actually derived from a word meaning hill, but from about 1300 it meant "elevated rolling grassland":
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=down
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 hrs (2012-07-31 01:01:22 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I am pretty sure that "down" does not mean "plain" nowadays (modern dictionaries do not list this meaning), so this usage is obsolete, but the definitions from Johnson and Webster show that it was current when Melville wrote this text in the 1840s. It wasn't just any plain, but specifically a high plain at the top of a hill.
A series of little hills is "downs", plural; a down, in modern English, is a single hill (a gently sloping hill, not a steep one). "Spacious" is much more likely to be applied to a plain than a hill, and as a place to hold a festival, a plain is more likely.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
11 mins
Stephanie Ezrol
United States
United States
Native in English
&
English
Works in field
United States
French to English, English to English
Native in: English
Works in: English, French to English, French Middle (ca.1400-1600) to English
Related KudoZ points
:
150
a down is a series of little hills
A down is an undulating upland, like a series of little hills. A synonymous term is downland, which goes back to Old English dunland (before 1100).
http://voices.yahoo.com/crest-crown-downland-escarpment-orig...
The 1966 Funk & wagnalls Standard College Dictionary has a very similar definition
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Note added at 21 mins (2012-07-30 14:05:41 GMT)
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A down is not the same as a plain because 1. it is a way of saying that the land is not flat. The plains of Nebraska are quite flat, as our many other plains 2. By being located "upland," it above the sea shore or river level.
http://voices.yahoo.com/crest-crown-downland-escarpment-orig...
The 1966 Funk & wagnalls Standard College Dictionary has a very similar definition
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 mins (2012-07-30 14:05:41 GMT)
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A down is not the same as a plain because 1. it is a way of saying that the land is not flat. The plains of Nebraska are quite flat, as our many other plains 2. By being located "upland," it above the sea shore or river level.
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