Joys of Modern Technology

[aesmael]

    Still reading The Woodlanders, beginning Chapter XX at Project Gutenberg and I come across this:

The two trees that had creaked
all the winter left off creaking, the whir of the night-jar,
however, forming a very satisfactory continuation of uncanny music
from that quarter.  Except at mid-day the sun was not seen
complete by the Hintock people, but rather in the form of numerous
little stars staring through the leaves.

    A quick search tells me a nightjar is a kind of nocturnal bird. There is also plenty of attached folkloric inspiration and, eventually, probably, as much information as I could want.

Addendum: It has been a long time since I have the Moon referred to as a planet. One reason I enjoy reading older novels is the way language changes over time. It refreshes my perspective to see familiar words used in new ways and to see words and constructions unfamiliar to me or forgotten.
That and the fun. Who told you it was not fun?

Comments

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

Nightjar would be a good name for a superhero :D

[janeanej.livejournal.com]

You go, girl!

[cosmolinguist]

It kind of makes sense for the Moon to be called a planet; the word means "wanderer," as the planets wandered among the stable background stars. The Moon moves too so I can see that rationale.

The distinction between planets and moons as we think of them now wasn't always very good anyway; for a long time it was believed that Jupiter's satellites couldn't be moons because everything clearly had to revolve around the Earth. And of course there's still the fact that even without Pluto (O hail Eris!), some planets are still moon-sized. :) It's not just language that's mutable, it's reality. (If there is a difference.)

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

Quite so. The rough structure of the solar system may have been known at the time of writing but it was not so long ago (okay, a few hundred years) since a Geocentric model prevailed. Seeing Luna called a planet calls up for me images of a world still not fully explored, in which mysteries can plausibly be thought to have magical explanations. It may not have been true in actuality, as the 1800s these days seem to have a reputation for rational materialism and the March of Progress, but with Little Hintock being so isolated from the world and Dr Fitzpiers himself blending science and mysticism in his studies it seems so very appropriate.

And I agree about the distinction between moon and planet not being very firm. They are not really radically different entities, but then classifications are very rarely easy to define when examined closely enough. Especially in a situation like this, where the primary difference between a moon and a planet is that one orbits the other. It would be like grouping magpies and possums together because they dwell in trees and placing emus and foxes together in another. Although... scale, feh.