 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2010The Saint and the 'Tildenesque maestria'!
In Enter the Saint (The Policeman with Wings) by Leslie Charteris, there is this sentence about Simon Templar... 'He played tennis with vigour and shameless inefficiency, erratically scrambling through weeks of rabbitry to occasional flashes of a positively Tildenesque maestria'. A 'rabbit' is someone who's not very good - 'rabbitry' isn't in my COD. Samuel Tilden was a Democratic candidate for US President who lost in 1876 owing to 'an electoral discrepancy' says the little blue Collins Dictionary of Biography. I haven't got a clue what 'Tildenesque maestria' means, though - 'maestria' was italicised. Can anyone enlighten me? :-D Nick from England >In Enter the Saint (The Policeman with Wings) by Leslie Charteris, >there is this sentence about Simon Templar... [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > >Can anyone enlighten me? :-D Not Samuel, but Bill. Bill Tilden was the Number 1 tennis player in the world for seven years running, but back in the 1920s. He was truly a maestria (master) in that sport.  SignatureTony Cooper - Orlando, Florida > On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:25:18 -0800 (PST), Nick > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > -- Thanks for solving the mystery, Tony! :-) Nick from England >In Enter the Saint (The Policeman with Wings) by Leslie Charteris, >there is this sentence about Simon Templar... [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > >Can anyone enlighten me? :-D My guess is that "maestria" is derived from "maestro" and is an invented word meaning maestro-like actions. Bill Tilden was a tennis player - a maestro of tennis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Tilden SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) On Feb 26, 3:31 pm, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net> wrote: > On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:25:18 -0800 (PST), Nick > [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > -- Thanks, Peter - just Googled 'maestria' - it appears to be Spanish which is, perhaps, why it was italicised. Nick from England > On Feb 26, 3:31 pm, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net> > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > Thanks, Peter - just Googled 'maestria' - it appears to be Spanish > which is, perhaps, why it was italicised. OED has it and says it's from Italian. But there are entries online that say it's also French http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=4094402655; Look out for references to Big Bill in Ian Johnstone's entertaining "Wimbledon 2000" if you can still find it. And if you're reading the Saint, do a search on Leslie Charteris - you may surprise yourself. SignatureJohn Dean Oxford > > On Feb 26, 3:31 pm, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net> > > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 40 lines] > surprise yourself. > -- Thanks - I know Leslie Charteris is half Chinese which is quite unusual. Nick from England > > On Feb 26, 3:31 pm, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net> > > wrote: [quoted text clipped - 40 lines] > surprise yourself. > -- The Wikipedia entry for Charteris looks very interesting - Big Bill sounds like he may have been quite a character. Nick from England |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.