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Old 04-10-2008, 02:40 AM   #213 (permalink)
Andrea Deagon
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Wilmington, NC
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One little note about tarab again -- I suspect it has a wide and varied semantic field (as linguists say) -- meaning that it can take on different meanings and holds meanings that do not align with any one word or statable concept in English. It may be like "classics," which describes my academic field, Classics/Classical Studies, which I have to subtitle "which is anything to do with ancient Greece and Rome" because to some people "classics" means great works of literature in English, while for others (or in other circumstances) it means anything that has withstood the test of time in any field. So it has a traditional meaning that has faded a little (the Greek and Roman stuff) but is usually understood more generally. And "Classic" has other implications as well. I had the impression that Dr. Racy was describing usages that would be part of the definition if you looked it up in a dictionary, and expanding on that. The concept of tarab as ecstasy/enchantment would then be a uniting element across the different usges.
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