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Marius Hancu - 20 Jul 2009 11:09 GMT

Hello:

Is "lovejoy" equivalent to "lover boy?"

---
Music Is International
(Phi Beta Kappa Poem, Columbia, 1947)

[...]
... where each frescade rings
With melodious booing and hooing
As some elegant lovejoy deigns to woo
And nothing dreadful ever happened?

W.H. Auden, p. 263
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--
Thanks.
Marius Hancu

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John Dean - 20 Jul 2009 14:08 GMT

> Hello:
>
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> W.H. Auden, p. 263
> ----

I don't think so, but with Wystan, who knows?
It may be intended to be the antithesis of the well known 'killjoy'.
'lovejoy' isn't known to OED except as the name of the TV series.
'leafe-joy' is n old term:

1638 Rawley tr. Bacon's Life & Death (1650) 34 Hope is as a *Leafe-Ioy
[orig. tanquam gaudium foliatum]; Which may be beaten out, to a great
Extention, like Gold.

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John Dean
Oxford

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Marius Hancu - 20 Jul 2009 15:25 GMT

> > Is "lovejoy" equivalent to "lover boy?"
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> I don't think so, but with Wystan, who knows?
> It may be intended to be the antithesis of the well known 'killjoy'.

That seems a good candidate for an association:-)

Thanks.
Marius Hancu

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Joe Fineman - 20 Jul 2009 22:44 GMT

>> Is "lovejoy" equivalent to "lover boy?"

>> ... where each frescade rings
>> With melodious booing and hooing
>> As some elegant lovejoy deigns to woo
>> And nothing dreadful ever happened?
>>
>> W.H. Auden, p. 263

> I don't think so, but with Wystan, who knows? It may be intended to
> be the antithesis of the well known 'killjoy'. 'lovejoy' isn't
> known to OED except as the name of the TV series.

The TV series, it appears, is named after the (fairly common) surname,
which must at the beginning have been descriptive -- perhaps a
nickname for a convivial person? At any rate, in context your guess
seems right.

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--- Joe Fineman joe_f@verizon.net

||: Having a car is like having a second body -- one that is :||
||: always sick. :||

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009

Auden: Music