English equivalent of "pilit'"

[Tim Beasley]

Hi.

"Saw (away)" sounds fine to me.  I've used it to refer to over-pressured 
and under-gifted kids in the past.  "He kept sawing away (on his fiddle) 
all day long", with "on his fiddle" being ellipted if sufficiently licensed 
by content.

"He sawed and sawed all day" soundsliteral--I expect sawdust--and "sawed 
and sawed away" or "sawed away and sawed away" are both infelicitous.

Tim Beasley

At 11:55 AM 4/2/2004, you wrote:
>Ottawa (Canada), Friday 2/4/04 11h55 EST
>
>Hullo, SEELANGers!
>
>Does anybody know of a good English equivalent of the Russian verb
>"ÐÉÌÉÔØ (ÎÁ ÓËÒÉÐËÅ)" ["pilit' (na skripke)"], giving the impression of
>practising constantly on a violin in such a way that the sound tends to
>grate on the ears of the musician's neighbours?  A computer dictionary
>offers "scrape", but this usage is not familiar to me -- especially in a
>context like "he scraped and scraped all day".  I would be grateful for
>any suggestions.
>
>J. Woodsworth
>
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