Monday, March 8, 2010

Word of the day: lave

From Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day:

The Word of the Day for March 8 is:

lave \LAYV\ verb
1 a : wash, bathe b : to flow along or against
2 : pour
I learned lave years ago while reading Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (1962). I still think of the novel whenever I see the word (as this post would seem to demonstrate). The word doesn’t appear in the novel, but it’s handy in what narrator Charles Kinbote calls “so-called word golf,” as it lets one make “hate-love in three”: hate, late, lave, love.

Other Pale Fire golf games: “lass-male in four,” “live-dead in five (with ‘lend’ in the middle).”

comments: 4

Elaine said...

I used 'hate-have-hove-love' myself.

My captcha was 'vultines'-- festive February greetings sent by vultures?

Michael Leddy said...

Oh my goodness. Hove is way more dazzling to my eyes than lave.

Elaine said...

You have your revenge, however: I have
lass-bass-base-bale-male

BUT
I am being driven bonkers by the other challenge.
All I can do is:
live-line-lane-land-lend-lead-dead
which is one too many.
If there is any Christian mercy in your soul, you will write to Elaine dot Walizer at gmail dot com and then enjoy hearing the screech of anguish reverberating from the stars....(I use VHF)

I have Spring Beauties blooming, along with daffodils, narcissus, and the occasional forsythia sprig. ;0) I guess Spring is coming after all!

Michael Leddy said...

Solution dispatched. (I had to look it up in my marked-up copy, where I figured it out in the margin years ago.)