roily

[Josef Malkin]

I do know what roily means, I just hesitated to use it in my translation,
not finding it in the British dictionaries. Being tempted, though, by the
nice alliteration: "roily rills" decided to consult  the experts.

Josef.


On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 3:23 PM, John Dunn <John.Dunn at glasgow.ac.uk> wrote:

> Indeed, but the answers are more interesting on SEELangs, and in any case
> I wanted to know why I didn't know, which a dictionary wouldn't necessarily
> tell me.  It seems that part of the problem is that the verb 'to roil',
> which until this morning was equally mysterious to me, is obsolete in
> British English, but current in the U.S. variety.
>
> I have also discovered a further complication.  It may be that the
> adjective 'roily' is derived not from the verb, but from a noun 'roil':
> this is listed in the Concise Scots Dictionary, which notes that the noun
> is recorded from the late 19th century onwards in Argyll with the meaning
> 'a storm, a heavy sea'.   It is conceivable that this noun was used
> elsewhere in the English-speaking world, not necessarily with the exact
> same meaning.
>
> John Dunn.
>
> ________________________________________
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [
> SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Matt Tucker [MTucker at AIFS.CO.UK]
> Sent: 22 April 2013 12:03
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] roily
>
> roily |ˈroilē|
> adjective
> (chiefly of water) muddy; turbulent : those waters were roily, high, and
> muddy.
>
> That's what dictionaries are for!
>
> Matt
> ________________________________________
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-- 
Josef Malkin

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