[Ads-l] an indirect reminder of a hapax legomenon

Jim Parish jparish at SIUE.EDU
Wed Aug 3 17:36:48 UTC 2016


I seem to recall one other appearance of "extemporanea", in _1776_; 
during the scene in which Franklin, Jefferson, et al. are arguing over 
who is to draft the Declaration, Franklin dismisses his own writings as 
"extemporanea". Or so I remember, having watched the film about a month ago.

Jim Parish

On 8/3/2016 12:29 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> Today's Times contained an obit for ex-Queen Anne of Romania (widow of deposed King Michael):
> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/world/europe/romania-queen-anne-obituary.html
>
> Toward the end, one of Anne's predecessors on the Romanian throne is mentioned:
>
> "She [Anne} will have the most lavish royal funeral in Romania since the death in 1938 of Queen Marie, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria."
>
> And yes, that was the Marie famously memorialized (and impersonated) by one of our all-world quote magnets:
>
> Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
> A medley of extemporanea;
> And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
> And I am Marie of Roumania.
>
> --Dorothy Parker, Not So Deep as a Well (1937)
>
> And yes, "extemporanea", unlisted in the OED, apparently made its first and virtually only appearance in the written record in this verse.
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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