Avrilaceous?
For those who diligently search for 'Avrilaceous' and end up at this post, read on.
I did a lot of searching for that word myself when I read Banville's The Sea. And it did not show up in any regular dictionary. Therefore I made up the explanation below and carried on.
Avrilaceous appears to be a formulated word. Banville uses Avrilaceous to describe freckles - 'flecked with chocolatey, Avrilaceous freckles' - and given the fact that A is capitalized, I think he means the kind of freckles that come out in the summer heat, therefore using French's April 'Avril' to make the description sound exotic. So Avrilaceous is probably 'that which comes in April'.
What say?
I also searched diligently, without success, for Avrilaceous and tend to agree with your interpretation.
Posted by
Anonymous |
2:17 AM, July 15, 2006
Second thoughts. There is a minor character named Avril who is given a particular type of freckle. That would explain the capitalization. The associations with April as freckle season still hold, however.
Posted by
Anonymous |
2:36 AM, July 15, 2006
I agree with the second thought. Banville describes at great length the freckles on Avril's face earlier in the book. His term "Avrilaceous" is most certainly self-referential.
Posted by
Anonymous |
3:27 AM, January 13, 2008
The January 13th post is correct. The description of the freckles of Avril, the woman at Duignan’s dairy, is on pp. 42-43 of the soft cover edition of The Sea.
Posted by
Anonymous |
7:27 AM, May 15, 2008