Re: Benison

[Cheryl]

On 14/10/2012 8:08 PM, Lewis wrote:
> I was reading an interview with Sir Terry
>
> <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/terry-pratchett-what-keeps-me-going-is-the-fight-8205971.html>
>
> And I came across, "So to be able to make a living out of writing is a benison".
>
> Is this a usual word in BrE, or just something he picked up in
> researching Dodger? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before.
>

I'd call it literary but not unheard-of in Canadian English.

--
Cheryl

[Robin Bignall]

On Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:38:18 +0000 (UTC), Lewis
<g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:

>I was reading an interview with Sir Terry
>
><http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/terry-pratchett-what-keeps-me-going-is-the-fight-8205971.html>
>
>And I came across, "So to be able to make a living out of writing is a benison".
>
>Is this a usual word in BrE, or just something he picked up in
>researching Dodger? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before.

It means a blessing, a wonderful gift to have, and I've seen it before,
but not often.
--
Robin Bignall
(BrE)
Herts, England

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:38:18 +0000 (UTC), Lewis
<g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:

>I was reading an interview with Sir Terry
>
><http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/terry-pratchett-what-keeps-me-going-is-the-fight-8205971.html>
>
>And I came across, "So to be able to make a living out of writing is a benison".
>
>Is this a usual word in BrE, or just something he picked up in
>researching Dodger? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before.

I recall seeing it in poetry, perhaps because the poet was looking for a word
to rhyme with venison.




--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

[Peter Brooks]

On Oct 15, 4:57 am, Steve Hayes <hayes...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:38:18 +0000 (UTC), Lewis
>

> <g.kr...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
> >I was reading an interview with Sir Terry
>

> ><http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/terry-...>

>
> >And I came across, "So to be able to make a living out of writing is a benison".
>
> >Is this a usual word in BrE, or just something he picked up in
> >researching Dodger? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before.
>
> I recall seeing it in poetry, perhaps because the poet was looking for a word
> to rhyme with venison.
>

I thought that GMH was likely to have used it, though I couldn't
remember a particular poem. So I had a look and found this grace from
Herrick - not that unexpected:

Here a little child I stand,
Heaving up my either hand;
Cold as paddocks though they be,
Here I lift them up for Thee,
For a benison to fall
On our meat and on us all. Amen.
Robert Herrick, [Another Grace for a Child, 1647]

[Guy Barry]

"Lewis" wrote in message news:slrnk7mfmq....@mbp55.local...

> I was reading an interview with Sir Terry

> <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/terry-pratchett-what-keeps-me-going-is-the-fight-8205971.html>

> And I came across, "So to be able to make a living out of writing is a
> benison".

> Is this a usual word in BrE, or just something he picked up in
> researching Dodger? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before.

I recognized it without looking it up as meaning "blessing", but it's not a
usual word in my experience. I think it's mainly in ecclesiastical usage.

--
Guy Barry

[Nick Spalding]

Steve Hayes wrote, in <a4vm78d8fhnud63hb...@4ax.com>
on Mon, 15 Oct 2012 05:02:35 +0200:

> On Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:38:18 +0000 (UTC), Lewis
> <g.k...@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote:
>
> >I was reading an interview with Sir Terry
> >
> ><http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/terry-pratchett-what-keeps-me-going-is-the-fight-8205971.html>
> >
> >And I came across, "So to be able to make a living out of writing is a benison".
> >
> >Is this a usual word in BrE, or just something he picked up in
> >researching Dodger? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before.
>
> I recall seeing it in poetry, perhaps because the poet was looking for a word
> to rhyme with venison.

Rupert Brooke uses it in a poem called "Great Lover".

<http://www.bartleby.com/103/147.html>
Line 40. No rhyme depends on it.

I never met it there myself but I did in LTC Rolt's book "Green and
Silver" where he quotes it in describing his pleasure in having a bath
after some time aboard a small boat on the Shannon.
--
Nick Spalding
BrE/IrE

[CDB]

Thanks, I had forgotten who wrote it; would have said "trad.".

"Here I lift them up to thee," though.

[Steve Hayes]

On Mon, 15 Oct 2012 07:10:40 +0100, "Guy Barry" <guy....@blueyonder.co.uk>
wrote:

>> Is this a usual word in BrE, or just something he picked up in
>> researching Dodger? I'm pretty sure I've never seen it before.
>
>I recognized it without looking it up as meaning "blessing", but it's not a
>usual word in my experience. I think it's mainly in ecclesiastical usage.

God’s benison go with you and with those
That would make good of bad and friends of foes
Macbeth

[Dr Nick]

I think it probably is an unusual word to encounter today. Your
examples are - roughly - half a century and a century old, after all.

And Rolt always did have a rather old-fashioned turn-of-phrase ("alarum
clock" for example).

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Did he manage to find a word that rhymes with "silver"?


--
athel

[Guy Barry]

"Athel Cornish-Bowden" wrote in message
news:ae7saq...@mid.individual.net...

> Did he manage to find a word that rhymes with "silver"?

I was brought up near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, which has a Kilver Street
and a Kilver Court:

http://www.kilvercourt.com/how-to-find-us

--
Guy Barry