Stupid reading-comprehension query: "abuse"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Huh. Now that I see that, it's so blindingly obvious that I
don't know how I could have missed it originally.

Thank god I'm not in a job where the interpretation of
things like this is important. Oh, wait....

Jesse Sheidlower

On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 10:54:36AM -0200, David A. Daniel wrote:
> They are trying to sing, the horses make them sneeze, they curse the horses.
> DAD
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Jesse Sheidlower
> Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 10:06 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> :      Stupid reading-comprehension query: "abuse"
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>
> Forgive me for asking what would seem to be a simple question
> on what a word means, but someone asked me about this and I'm
> rather confused.
>
> Consider the following passage from D.H. Lawrence's _Sons and
> Lovers_:
>
> ---
> On Saturday afternoons the horses were brushed down and groomed. Paul
> and Edgar worked together, sneezing with the dust that came from the
> pelts of Jimmy and Flower.
>
> "Do you know a new song to teach me?" said Edgar.
>
> He continued to work all the time. The back of his neck was sun-red
> when he bent down, and his fingers that held the brush were thick. Paul
> watched him sometimes.
>
> "'Mary Morrison'?" suggested the younger.
>
> Edgar agreed. He had a good tenor voice, and he loved to learn all the
> songs his friend could teach him, so that he could sing whilst he was
> carting. Paul had a very indifferent baritone voice, but a good ear.
> However, he sang softly, for fear of Clara. Edgar repeated the line in a
> clear tenor. At times they both broke off to sneeze, and first one, then
> the other, abused his horse.
>
> Miriam was impatient of men. It took so little to amuse them--even Paul.
> She thought it anomalous in him that he could be so thoroughly absorbed
> in a triviality....
> ---
>
> What does "abused" mean in this passage? There's no further
> context that would seem helpful. There's no reason to think
> that either man is actually ill-treating a horse, either
> physically or verbally, and if it's being used in some
> amiliorative way, with a strong word being applied to an
> action that's not actually that strong, it feels weird and
> pointless to me.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
>
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>
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