'repose' (v) in telic sense - not in OED or MW

[Garson O'Toole]

The following two citations may contain examples of the "telic use of
'repose'". Both citations are in publications from the St. Herman of
Alaska Brotherhood. Google Books only displays snippets for these
works.

Citation: The Northern Thebaïd: Monastic Saints of the Russian North
by Seraphim Rose, Ivan Mikhailovich Kontsevich, St. Herman of Alaska
Brotherhood, 1995. (Worldcat lists a 1975 edition.)

The Saint had lived for 85 years in all, and he reposed in the year
1533, on the 30th day of August. And this precious treasure, his
honorable and holy body remained in the heart of the earth, and it
gives forth, like an ever-flowing spring, an unfailing stream of
healings for all who come with faith to his honorable grave.

http://books.google.com/books?id=G85wAAAAMAAJ&q=%22he+reposed+in%22#search_anchor


Citation: Lives of the Georgian Saints by Zakaria Macitaze, Lado
Mirianašvili, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2006.

He spent the years 1010 to 1015 in Jerusalem, and labored at the Lavra
of St. Sabbas until 1025. He reposed in the year 1066, between the
ages of 76 and 81.

http://books.google.com/books?id=eaoRAQAAIAAJ&q=%22year+1066%22#search_anchor


The translator of the first work, Seraphim Rose, has an entry in
Wikipedia that states he was "a hieromonk (also called priest-monk) of
the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in the United States."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraphim_Rose

Garson

On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 6:50 AM, Damien Hall <djh514 at york.ac.uk> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Damien Hall <djh514 at YORK.AC.UK>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â 'repose' (v) in telic sense - not in OED or MW
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Can anyone provide any citations for the telic use of 'repose' (verb), as
> in the following sentence from a friend's recent Facebook status update?
>
> 'Τoday [sc. 2 January] we commemorate St John of Kronstadt, who reposed 101
> years ago. According to my Synaxarion, St John performed more recorded
> miracles than any saint, except for St Nicholas of Myra.'
>
> The friend (Jonathan Gress, here copied-in) confirms that this is a telic
> use of 'repose', in other words, it can be directly (but more crudely)
> glossed _die_. It's therefore different from the atelic use in OED 'repose'
> v(2) sense 3a (draft revision Dec 2009), and from the meanings at MW Online
> 'repose' (verb) - the more common atelic sense, as in 'The dust where your
> kindred repose', can be glossed _be dead_, not _die_.
>
> Jonathan says that 'repose' in this telic sense is a liturgical use in the
> Orthodox Christian Churches, '[reflecting] the Orthodox doctrine that the
> saints have not truly died, but are only 'resting' until the final bodily
> resurrection'. Being a historical linguist, he also gave me some
> derivational and other linguistic information in the Facebook thread,
> relevant bits of which are copied below for anyone's interest. In the
> thread, Jonathan quotes the Greek in Greek letters; they display correctly
> in the e-mail interface I'm using but, in case they don't for others, I
> have transliterated them (minus the diacritics) in the copied text.
>
> Damien
>
> === FACEBOOK THREAD ===
>
> JG ORIGINAL STATUS: Τoday we commemorate St John of Kronstadt, who reposed
> 101 years ago. According to my Synaxarion, St John performed more recorded
> miracles than any saint, except for St Nicholas of Myra.
>
> DH: I'm interested in that use of _repose_. It's not in the OED (I don't
> think, on a quick perusal). Is that a liturgical usage in the Orthodox
> Church?
>
> JG: [...] Certainly the ordinary meaning of repose is 'rest', and the use
> of repose to mean 'die' reflects the Orthodox doctrine that the saints have
> not truly died, but are only 'resting' until the final bodily resurrection.
> Compare the word we use to call the Virgin Mary's death: 'Dormition' or
> 'Koimesis' in Greek.
>
> DH: [points out the distinction between more usual atelic use and this
> telic one]
>
> JG: Ah I see what you mean. That's a good point. It's possible this
> particular telic meaning of 'repose' has been coined in English to
> translate the telic Greek verb κοιμάομαι "koimaomai" 'fall asleep', from
> which κοίμησις "koime:sis" is morphologically derived.
>
> DH: [...] In the very few translated Orthodox texts I have sung [...], and
> not being a member of an Orthodox Church, I've only ever seen the
> translation 'fall asleep' for this sense, which is why I wasn't familiar
> with telic 'repose'.
>
> --
> Damien Hall
>
> University of York
> Department of Language and Linguistic Science
> Heslington
> YORK
> YO10 5DD
> UK
>
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>
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