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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2011 10:42 pm
by LukeJavan8
Sounds good to me. Hope he picks it up.
There is a linguist on the other site still doing
research on it, and has a message in to the
Louisa May Alcott association to look into it.
I guess they are "on holiday" but he hopes to
get through to them when they return from
it.

help with this quote please

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:12 am
by sardith
Great, I wait for the reply.

Thanks again,
Susan :D

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:58 pm
by LukeJavan8
Here's a sampling of this morning's comments:

I also must have skipped over the phrase, because it made
sense in context and it rang no bells in the old noggin.
But it is a curious one, and so much on the ankle of the
horse: everything from pictures to diagrams and so forth.




About fetlock, it sure is an all-horse thing.
Link (link has pictures of horse legs: many many)


The word fetlock literally means "foot-lock" and originally referred to the small tuft of hair situated on the rear of the fetlock joint[1].

Which is visable in one of the images one post up.
But maybe that not at all what you look for.

to me, the question is whether LMA was playing with words (was she wont to do that?) or was she just confused.

but I despair of getting an answer from the LMAS, as my email to the Societal Secretary bounced and the only other contact listed is their webmaster. but I'll try to resend next week, when folks should be back from their holidays.

Well--in those days, in merrie Olde England and other places as I understand it, tugging at one's forelock was done by...people who considered themselves servants, as a sign of submission (and other things, mayhap). So if you have a person (and conceivably a horse though the control is far less certain) by the forelock or a horse by the fetlock, to me that indicates that you have control over the grabbee. I don't recall reading/noticing this phrase in L.W. either, but I'd think it was a safe guess to say that the character meant that she wasn't going to let time get away from her.

(here's a good one:)
I don't think Time has been often equusified, as opposed to the personification of Father Time.

If you've grabbed Time by a tuft of hair that might be called a fetlock all you're likely to get out of it is a good kick in the teeth by Time's hoof. It doesn't seem like a very secure handhold. Perhaps the character that had the line was a Mrs. Malaprop sort.


Amazing what one question will do.

help with this quote please

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:23 pm
by sardith
Whoa, nellie!