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Tarkowsky Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
The ratherest thing
hi,
I'd like to know the meaning of the word ratherest in this contex.
The quote is from Stephen Fry's first novel "The Liar".
"I mean what kind of coat is that?"
'It's called an astrakhan an I am sure you agree that it is absolutely the ratherest thing.You will observe it fits my sumptuous frame as snugly as if it were made for me....just as you do, you delicious Hopkinson.'
'Oh shut up.'
'Your whole body goes quite pink when you are flattered, like a small pig, it is utterly, utterly fetching'.
Is ratherest a slang word actually used among young people or a Fry's neologism?
Regards Tarkowsky
I'd like to know the meaning of the word ratherest in this contex.
The quote is from Stephen Fry's first novel "The Liar".
"I mean what kind of coat is that?"
'It's called an astrakhan an I am sure you agree that it is absolutely the ratherest thing.You will observe it fits my sumptuous frame as snugly as if it were made for me....just as you do, you delicious Hopkinson.'
'Oh shut up.'
'Your whole body goes quite pink when you are flattered, like a small pig, it is utterly, utterly fetching'.
Is ratherest a slang word actually used among young people or a Fry's neologism?
Regards Tarkowsky
Top answer
Hi, The latter. Clive
- Hi, The latter.
- Clive
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3 Answers
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Old, IMO.
Used even by Shakespeare:
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Love's Labours Lost
DULL:
Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.
HOLOFERNES:
Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation,
as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were,
replication, or rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his
inclination,--a
Used even by Shakespeare:
-------
Love's Labours Lost
DULL:
Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.
HOLOFERNES:
Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation,
as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were,
replication, or rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his
inclination,--a
00
Thank you very much for the information.
So it turns out that it's a learned word disguised as youngster's slang.
So it turns out that it's a learned word disguised as youngster's slang.
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