What does the verb 'to quain' mean?

[Harald Lochert]

thanks!

[Harald Lochert]

e.g. in the following sentence:

"In an exciting Ladies Doubles Final Aranxta Sanchez Vicario quained
some consolation after her singles disappointment when she partnered
Jana Novotna to the title."

[Harald Lochert]

or the following ones:

"Sycomores grew on the slopes of the valley, scantily leaved, sharply
quained and accidented by perhaps the valley winds, and often most
gracefully inscaped ... "

"However, that time in Korea, "Subak", an old name of Taekwondo, has
quained great popularity among the people, and therefore..."

[Einde O'Callaghan]

This seems to be a misprint for "gained".

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[Einde O'Callaghan]

Harald Lochert wrote:
>
> or the following ones:
>
> "Sycomores grew on the slopes of the valley, scantily leaved, sharply
> quained and accidented by perhaps the valley winds, and often most
> gracefully inscaped ... "
>

This doesn't seem to have been written by a native English speaker. It
doesn't seem to make sense. At least this native speaker has never heard
"accidented" and "inscaped" used in this manner (or indeed in any
manner).

> "However, that time in Korea, "Subak", an old name of Taekwondo, has
> quained great popularity among the people, and therefore..."

This seems to be a misprint of "gained" but the tense usage is
incorrect. You can't use the present perfect with a specified past time.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[Harald Lochert]

Maybe the following extract helps determining the meaning of "quain".

"The main issue addressed by this thesis is simple enough to state:
the verbs we observe in natural languages are only a fraction of those
we can imagine finding. In example (1) are some ordinary English
verbs:

(1) The child trained/called/petted/fed/kicked the dog

Across a wide range of meanings, there is a regularity - `the child'
plays an agentive role in the action denoted by the verb and is
realized as the verb's subject, while `the dog' is on the receiving
end of the action and is realized as its direct object. The reverse
mapping does not occur; for example, there is no verb `quain' in
English such that:

(2) The dog quained the child.

is synonymous with any of the sentences in (1). There are passive
versions of such sentences, in which the agent may be realized in an
oblique 'by'-phrase, but no constructions like (2), in which it is
realized as a direct object. "

[Harald Lochert]

From a Website:

Masonary details: (as per elevation)

- soldier coursing
- brick quaining
^^^^^^^
- key stones

[John Ramsay]

Harald Lochert wrote:
>
> thanks!

It's a linguistic backformation by which the adjective 'quaint' became
the noun/verb 'quain'.

[Einde O'Callaghan]

Harald Lochert wrote:
>
> The reverse
> mapping does not occur; for example, there is no verb `quain' in
> English such that:
>
> (2) The dog quained the child.
>

As the text explains there is no such verb as "quain". It seems to me to
be a nonsense word put in to illustrate a verb pattern.

Perhaps John Ramsay is correct to say that it is a back formation from
the adjective "quaint", but even if it is it still doesn't make any
sense to me.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[Einde O'Callaghan]

Is there an illustration on the site - here it could be a a technical
term used in masonry. However, I can't find it in my Concise Oxford
Dictionary, which does include both of the other terms.

You could try looking it up in one of the big on-line dictionaries like
the Merriam-Webster at http://www.m-w.com

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[John Ramsay]

Er, John Ramsay was joking when he said that.

There were obvious typesetting errors as part of the original problem.

Sanchez Victoria 'gained', not 'quained' -:)

> Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[Einde O'Callaghan]

John Ramsay wrote:
>
> Einde O'Callaghan wrote:
> >
> > Harald Lochert wrote:
> > >
> > > The reverse
> > > mapping does not occur; for example, there is no verb `quain' in
> > > English such that:
> > >
> > > (2) The dog quained the child.
> > >
> > As the text explains there is no such verb as "quain". It seems to me to
> > be a nonsense word put in to illustrate a verb pattern.
> >
> > Perhaps John Ramsay is correct to say that it is a back formation from
> > the adjective "quaint", but even if it is it still doesn't make any
> > sense to me.
> >
>
> Er, John Ramsay was joking when he said that.
>

It seemed just as plausible as any other explanation of this apparent
word, even if it was a joke - particularly after 3.00 in the morning.
;-)

> There were obvious typesetting errors as part of the original problem.
>
> Sanchez Victoria 'gained', not 'quained' -:)
>

I had already pointed out that possibility. However.the questioner has
also posted a number of other instances of this alleged word where
"gained" is definitely not a possibility, including the one I was
commenting on, apparently a quote from some sort of linguistic
discourse. There is also one that is supposed to have something to do
with masonry, where again "gained" doesn't make any sense.

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

[John Ramsay]

Masonry is 'quoin' = corner. So, if spelt correctly, 'The dog quoined
the boy' makes sense. Perhaps a humorous usage?

'Coin/coign' [French pronunciation] are alternates of quoin.

There's also an old phrase 'coign of vantage' meaning point of view.

[hayleya...@gmail.com]

Hi,

The OED (2012) defines "quain" as "G. M. Hopkins' name for: an angle, a wedge-like corner. Also: angularity." The entry also says "Etymology: Probably spec. use of a variant of QUOIN n. (compare forms at that entry)." All the examples are from Hopkins except for one from W. H. Gardner in a work on Hopkins.

Here is the full Hopkins entry originally quoted in this thread: “We lunched at the Baths of Rosenlaui and walked on to Meyringen down the valley of the Reichenbach in torrent. Sycamores grew on the slopes of the valley, scantily leaved, sharply quained and accidented by perhaps the valley winds, and often most gracefully inscaped.—On the wall of the cliff bounding the valley on the further side of the river was a bright silver-tackled waterfall parted into slender shanks.”

A gem of the English language! Many more are in Hopkins’s mind-boggling writing. He also invented the word “inscape,” “instress,” and a few others.

The passage is in Hopkins’s Journal entry of July 18, 1868. In House and Storey, eds, Journals and Papers (London: OUP, 1959) p.176. Hopkins uses “quain” or “quaining” in at least seven other places in the volume.

[hayleya...@gmail.com]

Here is some more; different meanings than Hopkins. I don't remember where I got it but it looks like another edition of the OED. It starts with Old Norse and Old English origins:

quain ▪ I. quain, v.Obs.rare
[a. ON. kveina = OE. cwánian, Goth. qainôn: an ablaut-var. appears in MDu. and MLG. quînen (Du. kwijnen) to complain, be ill (cf. MHG. verquînen, OE. ácw{iacu}nan to waste away).]
intr. (also refl.) and trans. To lament, bewail, bemoan. Hence quaining vbl. n.
a 1300 Cursor M. 10488 Sco quainid eft on þis maner, Oft sco said, ‘allas! allas!’ Ibid. 10495 To quils sco quainid þus hir care. Ibid. 12495 Quen iesus herd þis quaining gret. Ibid. 21886 Þarof him quaines iesu crist. [A possible instance of quain n. (cf. ON. kvein) occurs in line 11577.]