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Viognier Posted 21 years ago
Vocabulary
esat
Hello dear all,
While browsing various usages of the word 'tender' I came across the following definition (from Devil's Dictionary):
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HEART, n. An automatic, muscular blood-pump. Figuratively, this useful organ is said to be the?esat?of emotions and sentiments -- a very pretty fancy which, however, is nothing but a survival of a once universal belief. It is now known that the sentiments and emotions reside in the stomach, being evolved from food by chemical action of the gastric fluid. The exact process by which a beefsteak becomes a feeling -- tender or not, according to the age of the animal from which it was cut; the successive stages of elaboration through which a caviar sandwich is transmuted to a quaint fancy and reappears as a pungent epigram; the marvelous functional methods of converting a hard-boiled egg into religious contrition, or a cream-puff into a sigh of sensibility -- these things have been patiently ascertained by M. Pasteur, and by him expounded with convincing lucidity.
????????????????????????????????????????????????
(Thank you for your patience)
I have two questions:
[1] What's this?esat?, where does this word come from?
[2] I cannot understand the 'a caviar sandwich (and below)' part of the above passage. Is there any related fixed expression?
I'll appreciate your help. Thank you, in advance.
While browsing various usages of the word 'tender' I came across the following definition (from Devil's Dictionary):
????????????????????????????????????????????????
HEART, n. An automatic, muscular blood-pump. Figuratively, this useful organ is said to be the?esat?of emotions and sentiments -- a very pretty fancy which, however, is nothing but a survival of a once universal belief. It is now known that the sentiments and emotions reside in the stomach, being evolved from food by chemical action of the gastric fluid. The exact process by which a beefsteak becomes a feeling -- tender or not, according to the age of the animal from which it was cut; the successive stages of elaboration through which a caviar sandwich is transmuted to a quaint fancy and reappears as a pungent epigram; the marvelous functional methods of converting a hard-boiled egg into religious contrition, or a cream-puff into a sigh of sensibility -- these things have been patiently ascertained by M. Pasteur, and by him expounded with convincing lucidity.
????????????????????????????????????????????????
(Thank you for your patience)
I have two questions:
[1] What's this?esat?, where does this word come from?
[2] I cannot understand the 'a caviar sandwich (and below)' part of the above passage. Is there any related fixed expression?
I'll appreciate your help. Thank you, in advance.
Top answer
org/definition/tender .. may be a typo, I'm wondering now. seat??
- org/definition/tender ..
- may be a typo, I'm wondering now.
- seat??
- Then please ignore the first question..!
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3 Answers
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Hello
That passage is from 'Webster's Online Dictionary,'
http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definition/tender
.. but that?esat?may be a typo, I'm wondering now. It should be?seat??
Then please ignore the first question..!
That passage is from 'Webster's Online Dictionary,'
http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definition/tender
.. but that?esat?may be a typo, I'm wondering now. It should be?seat??
Then please ignore the first question..!
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You're right-- #1 is a typo for seat.
#2-- it is all Biercean humour. The conceit is that emotions just come from the food we eat, so that tender beefsteaks digest and become tender feelings, caviar becomes a fancy and then an epigram, a hard-boiled egg becomes contrition, a creampuff is converted into a sigh, and so forth. No particular idioms or fixed expressions invol
#2-- it is all Biercean humour. The conceit is that emotions just come from the food we eat, so that tender beefsteaks digest and become tender feelings, caviar becomes a fancy and then an epigram, a hard-boiled egg becomes contrition, a creampuff is converted into a sigh, and so forth. No particular idioms or fixed expressions invol
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Hello Mister Micawber, thank you for your help.
I see, so I should understand that passage 'literally,' so to say.
Thank you again!
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I see, so I should understand that passage 'literally,' so to say.
Thank you again!
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