[Khanna]

Hey guys. Since English is not my native language, there's something I just couldn't figrure out. Any help is greatly appreciated.

So in Reaper's Gale Tehol Beddict and Rucket have this conversation:


Rucket: "Where are you going?"
Tehol: "Why, to your private room, of course."
"Oh, how nice."
"Aren't you joining me, Rucket?"
"What would be the point? The name 'fat root' is a woman's joke, you know."
"I haven't drunk any yellow smelling tea!"
"In the future, I advise you to use gloves."


"Fat root" and "yellow smelling tea" is from a previous conversation betwenn Tehol and a witch. Can someone explain to me what is all this? What is fat root exactly? What does Rucket mean when she says "fat root is a woman's joke?" What the hell am I missing? Thank you.

[amphibian]

Fat root is a euphemism for a big penis. The trade Tehol made with the witch was part of a code he had to do in order to meet Rucket.

The tea and the root, Rucket is joking that Tehol would want to avoid them and not handle them in order to not have his "equipment" shrink at a bad time.

[Khanna]

What is the tea in this context?

 amphibian, on 12 August 2024 - 03:21 AM, said:

Fat root is a euphemism for a big penis. The trade Tehol made with the witch was part of a code he had to do in order to meet Rucket.

The tea and the root, Rucket is joking that Tehol would want to avoid them and not handle them in order to not have his "equipment" shrink at a bad time.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

From a little earlier:

Quote

She squealed her usual delight at the gifts of beaker and fat root, the latter of which, it turned out, was most commonly used by malicious wives to effect the shrinkage of their husbands' testicles; whilst Shill had, with some delicate modifications, applied the root's diminutive properties to her broods, feeding the yellow-smelling tea out in precise increments using the holed beaker.

Reaper's Gale - Google Books

That's on page 86 in the Google Books edition, and what you're quoting is on page 88.

Precise wording seems to be "yellow-smelling tea". It could be a poetic description---a bit of synesthesia or association... but it seems very idiosyncratic. Being a native English speaker wouldn't help you much with this one.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 12 August 2024 - 03:07 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Oh, the answer to the "yellow-smelling" mystery is actually just a little further up that same page (86):

Quote

'Are you required to partake of it in some bizarre fashion?'

He shook his head.

'Are you certain? No unusual tea smelling yellow?'

'Smelling yellow? What does that mean?'

'If you smelled it, you'd know. Clearly, you haven't. Good. Get out, I'm puckering."

Reaper's Gale - Google Books

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 12 August 2024 - 03:15 PM

[Khanna]

Maybe it's because I'm not a native English speaker but I still don't understand what yellow-smelling tea means.

 Azath Vitr (D, on 12 August 2024 - 03:14 PM, said:

Oh, the answer to the "yellow-smelling" mystery is actually just a little further up that same page (86):

Quote

'Are you required to partake of it in some bizarre fashion?'

He shook his head.

'Are you certain? No unusual tea smelling yellow?'

'Smelling yellow? What does that mean?'

'If you smelled it, you'd know. Clearly, you haven't. Good. Get out, I'm puckering."

Reaper's Gale - Google Books

This post has been edited by Khanna: 12 August 2024 - 03:18 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

 Khanna, on 12 August 2024 - 03:18 PM, said:

Maybe it's because I'm not a native English speaker but I still don't understand what yellow-smelling tea means.

 Azath Vitr (D, on 12 August 2024 - 03:14 PM, said:

Oh, the answer to the "yellow-smelling" mystery is actually just a little further up that same page (86):

Quote

'Are you required to partake of it in some bizarre fashion?'

He shook his head.

'Are you certain? No unusual tea smelling yellow?'

'Smelling yellow? What does that mean?'

'If you smelled it, you'd know. Clearly, you haven't. Good. Get out, I'm puckering."

Reaper's Gale - Google Books

You'd have to smell it to understand! (Kidding...)

It's a tea that smells like the color yellow. That quote makes clear that it's not some obscure term or idiom---it's a mock poetic usage. In the context of testicle-shrinking, I'd guess maybe it smells like urine? IDK exactly what associations Erikson intended by "yellow". Probably something foul---possibly pus as well as urine. It doesn't make any more sense in English than it does in any other language that has words for "yellow", "smell", and "tea"...

OTOH "puckering" might imply lemon-like---but I doubt it.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 12 August 2024 - 03:40 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Or rather it smells like what people might expect something that's yellow to smell like---particularly like a yellow fluid. Or it could just smell like whatever olfactory associations the color yellow has for the speaker.... It's a very nonstandard and idiosyncratic usage.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 12 August 2024 - 04:00 PM