McCarthy: quarterwise

[Marius Hancu]

Hello:

~~~
[Boy journeying across Texas, first in an irregular military company,
then in another, in Mexico.]

They were cattle, mules, horses. There were several thousand head and
they were moving quarterwise toward the company. By late afternoon
riders were visible to the bare eye, a handful of ragged indians mending
the outer flanks of the herd with their nimble ponies. Others in hats,
perhaps Mexicans. The sergeant dropped back to where the captain was
riding.

Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
~~~

"quarterwise": at an angle?

Thanks.
--
Marius Hancu

[Horace LaBadie]

In article <l5jtda$jup$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,

Presumably at a forty-five degree angle to their line of travel.

[Iain Archer]

Horace LaBadie wrote on Fri, 8 Nov 2013 at 19:30:50 GMT

I've not seen any dictionary definition, and the only current uses seems
to be along the line of distribution-by-quarter, where the quarter might
be calendar quarter, or even region of a buffalo's body, as in " the
quarter-wise comparative prevalence of mastitis in buffaloes and
crossbred cows"; eg "Out of these, 1(12.5%) was right fore, 2(25%) right
hind, 1(12.5%)
left fore and 4(50%) left hind quarters."

I think we're in surmise territory. I'd stick with the idea of
distribution into quarters, and guess that he means they're proceeding
as if along the lines of a rectangular grid, ie only taking right-angle
turns.
--
Iain Archer

[Snidely]

Iain Archer formulated the question :

Sailors use "off the starboard quarter" to refer to something
near-abouts 120 degrees from straight ahead. I haven't explored any
McCarthy, so I don't know if that usage would apply to his writing ...
and cowboys and cavalry troopers aren't so likely to speak to
sailorish.

/dps

--
The presence of this syntax results from the fact that SQLite is really
a Tcl extension that has escaped into the wild.
<http://www.sqlite.org/lang_expr.html>

[CDB]

Yes, probably at an angle of roughly forty-five degrees. I see it as
related to this definition of "quarter" from OneLook AHD:

_Nautical_ The general direction on either side of a ship located 45°
off the stern.

[Tak To]

That would be 135° from the (apparent) line of travel.
Quite a confusion with several thousand heads.

Tak
--
----------------------------------------------------------------+-----
Tak To ta...@comcast.netxx
--------------------------------------------------------------------^^
[taode takto ~{LU5B~}] NB: trim the xx to get my real email addr

[Peter T. Daniels]

Does this mean quarterhorses can only travel diagonally?

[Marius Hancu]

Thank you all.

--
Marius Hancu

[CDB]

On 09/11/2013 11:58 AM, Tak To wrote:

> CDB wrote:
>> Marius Hancu wrote:

>>> [Boy journeying across Texas, first in an irregular military company,
>>> then in another, in Mexico.]

>>> They were cattle, mules, horses. There were several thousand head and
>>> they were moving quarterwise toward the company. By late afternoon
>>> riders were visible to the bare eye, a handful of ragged indians mending
>>> the outer flanks of the herd with their nimble ponies. Others in hats,
>>> perhaps Mexicans. The sergeant dropped back to where the captain was
>>> riding.

>>> Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
>>> ~~~

>>> "quarterwise": at an angle?

>> Yes, probably at an angle of roughly forty-five degrees. I see it as
>> related to this definition of "quarter" from OneLook AHD:

>> _Nautical_ The general direction on either side of a ship located 45°
>> off the stern.

> That would be 135° from the (apparent) line of travel.
> Quite a confusion with several thousand heads.

Which part of "related" didn't you understand?