What does the verb 'to quain' mean?

[h***@gmail.com]

Hi,

The OED (2012) defines "quain" as "G. M. Hopkins' name for: an angle, a wedge-like corner. Also: angularity." The entry also says "Etymology: Probably spec. use of a variant of QUOIN n. (compare forms at that entry)." All the examples are from Hopkins except for one from W. H. Gardner in a work on Hopkins.

Here is the full Hopkins entry originally quoted in this thread: “We lunched at the Baths of Rosenlaui and walked on to Meyringen down the valley of the Reichenbach in torrent. Sycamores grew on the slopes of the valley, scantily leaved, sharply quained and accidented by perhaps the valley winds, and often most gracefully inscaped.—On the wall of the cliff bounding the valley on the further side of the river was a bright silver-tackled waterfall parted into slender shanks.”

A gem of the English language! Many more are in Hopkins’s mind-boggling writing. He also invented the word “inscape,” “instress,” and a few others.

The passage is in Hopkins’s Journal entry of July 18, 1868. In House and Storey, eds, Journals and Papers (London: OUP, 1959) p.176. Hopkins uses “quain” or “quaining” in at least seven other places in the volume.

[h***@gmail.com]

Post by h***@gmail.com
Hi,
The OED (2012) defines "quain" as "G. M. Hopkins' name for: an angle, a wedge-like corner. Also: angularity." The entry also says "Etymology: Probably spec. use of a variant of QUOIN n. (compare forms at that entry)." All the examples are from Hopkins except for one from W. H. Gardner in a work on Hopkins.
Here is the full Hopkins entry originally quoted in this thread: “We lunched at the Baths of Rosenlaui and walked on to Meyringen down the valley of the Reichenbach in torrent. Sycamores grew on the slopes of the valley, scantily leaved, sharply quained and accidented by perhaps the valley winds, and often most gracefully inscaped.—On the wall of the cliff bounding the valley on the further side of the river was a bright silver-tackled waterfall parted into slender shanks.”
A gem of the English language! Many more are in Hopkins’s mind-boggling writing. He also invented the word “inscape,” “instress,” and a few others.
The passage is in Hopkins’s Journal entry of July 18, 1868. In House and Storey, eds, Journals and Papers (London: OUP, 1959) p.176. Hopkins uses “quain” or “quaining” in at least seven other places in the volume.

Here is some more; different meanings than Hopkins. I don't remember where I got it but it looks like another edition of the OED. It starts with Old Norse and Old English origins:

quain ▪ I. quain, v.Obs.rare
[a. ON. kveina = OE. cwánian, Goth. qainôn: an ablaut-var. appears in MDu. and MLG. quînen (Du. kwijnen) to complain, be ill (cf. MHG. verquînen, OE. ácw{iacu}nan to waste away).]
intr. (also refl.) and trans. To lament, bewail, bemoan. Hence quaining vbl. n.
a 1300 Cursor M. 10488 Sco quainid eft on þis maner, Oft sco said, ‘allas! allas!’ Ibid. 10495 To quils sco quainid þus hir care. Ibid. 12495 Quen iesus herd þis quaining gret. Ibid. 21886 Þarof him quaines iesu crist. [A possible instance of quain n. (cf. ON. kvein) occurs in line 11577.]