Beset

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Dr. Goodword
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Beset

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Jul 20, 2022 7:20 pm

• beset •


Pronunciation: bi-setHear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. Attack from all sides, assail from all angles; to surround. 2. Pester, annoy, harass a lot. 3. To set with decorations, stud as with jewels.

Notes: Today we have a beautiful word teetering on the edge of oblivion; we use it today mostly in written English. The Oxford Dictionary has found only one example of besetter "someone who besets", but besetment "surrounded" is represented by several quotations. This verb remains the same throughout the conjugation except for the present participle, besetting.

In Play: Problems and difficulties are usually the things that beset us: "The only question in the US today is which political party besets America with more problems." The third sense is the least often heard: "Monica loves to walk early in the morning when the blades of the grass are beset with glistening jewels of dew."

Word History: Today's Good word is obviously a combination of be- "about, around, on all sides" + set "to make sit (still)". Be- was originally by. In its new form with the new meaning "completely, all over" we find it also in bespatter, bedazzle, bedew. Set has cousins in all Germanic languages like Dutch zetten, German setzen, Icelandic sitja, and Swedish sätta. It comes from PIE set-/sod- "to sit", source also of Armenian nstim "I sit", Greek hedra "seat", Latin sedere "to sit", Lithuanian sėdėti "to sit", Latvian sēdēt "to sit", and Russian sedu "I sit down". Of course we have thousands of derivations from this word, words like settle, saddle, situation, Russian sad "garden", and cathedral from Greek kathedra "chair", from kata "down" + hedra "seat". (Now let's thank Tony Bowden of London, who also contributed a collection of original limericks years ago, for rescuing today's lovely Good Word for Good Word subscribers.)
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Slava
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Re: Beset

Postby Slava » Tue Jul 04, 2023 10:47 am

I can say I do not believe I've ever come across the 3rd meaning. Perhaps I don't read enough poetry?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Debbymoge
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Re: Beset

Postby Debbymoge » Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:10 am

Slava, you don't wear enough ballgowns.
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Shakespear

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Slava
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Re: Beset

Postby Slava » Tue Jul 04, 2023 11:29 am

Well, not being a cross-dresser, I don't suppose I do. :D
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

bnjtokyo
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Re: Beset

Postby bnjtokyo » Tue Jul 04, 2023 7:01 pm

Using the Ngram viewer I found a couple of interesting examples

Here, clearly in sense 3
"The medal had three orders : the first order beset with diamonds was reserved for the princes of the royal family and distinguished foreigners ; the second order beset with emeralds was conferred on the highest dignitaries of the State ..."
The Life and Times of Ranjit Singh: A Saga of Benevolent Despotism, 1977

There are several examples from technical biological writing in sense 3. I will quote but one
"( A ) S. auriculata , detail of apocolpium showing perforate tectum with small perforations and relatively densely beset with granules / microspines"
Australian Systematic Botany, Vol 18, 2005

Link to the Ngram viewer
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?c ... moothing=3

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Slava
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Re: Beset

Postby Slava » Tue Jul 04, 2023 8:22 pm

The first set of examples makes great sense to me as it seems related to heraldry, which is one of those areas of the language that at times seems almost an entirely different language.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Debbymoge
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Re: Beset

Postby Debbymoge » Wed Jul 05, 2023 10:55 am

BNJ,
Please don't leave me beset with curiosity and wandering wondering!
The third order?
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Shakespear

bnjtokyo
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Re: Beset

Postby bnjtokyo » Thu Jul 06, 2023 8:42 am

The Ngram viewer does not allow us to expand the sample to capture more text, but I undertook a search of the internet to see what I could find with the title and author. Here's what I found.

Amazon has a digital Kindle version for about 2000JPY
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Patwant-S ... 072061323X

I found a searchable archive copy and searched it on "beset with" and found the passage pasted in below. (Not the most easily read document, but . . . .) (Typos in the original)

https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli ... h_djvu.txt
neofthe highest awards in the State instituted in 1837 oa the occasion
of the marriage of Kanwar Naunihal Singh, the Maharaja’s grandson, was the
KaukaM-lqbat-t-PunJab (the Star of the FeliciQ' of the Punjab). Its first recipjcnt
was the British Commander-in-Chicf, Sir Henry Fane, who had come to attend
the marriage. The medal had three orders : the first order beset with diamonds
was reserved for the princes of the royal family and distinguished foreigners; the
second order beset with emeralds was conferred on the highest dignitaries of the
State; and the third order beset with jewels was reserved for military officers of
approved valour. The Lahore Diarist records that the recipients of this medal
were ! Kanwars Kharak Singh, Naunihal Singh and Sher Singh, Raj3 Gulab Singh,
Raja Dhian Singh, Raja Suchet Singh, Ra^ Hira Singh, Jamadar Khusbal Singh,
Sardar Attar Singh Sindhianwala, Sardar Dhanna Singh MalwaT, Sardar Lchna
Singh MajTthia, Diw^n Sawan hfal, Rajj Dina Nath and others.^

Debbymoge
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Re: Beset

Postby Debbymoge » Thu Jul 06, 2023 11:03 am

Thank you so very much!
The Singhs seem to have had a near monopoly. I wonder when the original was written and if arcane lettering may have contributed to the interesting puzzle created.
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Shakespear

bbeeton
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Re: Beset

Postby bbeeton » Thu Jul 06, 2023 2:16 pm

The "somewhat imprecise" text, to me, shows
(1) evidence of faulty scanning, and then
(2) passage of the scanned text to a Unicode-non-aware app.

I've seen too many of these flawed texts. It gives me mental indigestion, but at least sometimes I'm able to figure out what the original was trying to say. It seems we're fated to be beset with such problems.


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