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Hello ........ I wonder if I could get some kind soul to tell me the meaning of the words in triple parentheses, which have refused to make an appearance in any of my dictionaries. ... ο ήλιος έπεφτε καταστίζοντας, με (((πλάκες ορφνές,))) τα λευκά καπούλια του δρόμου ... In fact, since the whole clause is kinda peculiar, maybe someone could tell me what the whole thing says. Good wishes Blake More |
| Re: vocabulary |
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Am I right in guessing that this is poetry you're reading? Because that would explain the slightly off syntax, and the use of uncommon words and uncommon word order. Basically, the clause means something like: ... the sun set colouring, with slabs of bay, the white hips of the road... "πλάκες ορφνές" has an inversion, with the adjective following the noun, rather than the usual adjective+noun order (quite common in poetry). "Πλάκα" simply means "plate, slab", while "ορφνός" is an adjective meaning "dark colour", often used of horses to mean "bay". The use of "καπούλια", a word that refers to the hips of a horse (and, in slang, to the beautiful hips of a woman) completes the metaphor started with the use of "ορφνός". Very evocative, if you know horse vocabulary... Hope this helped. |
