Rank

English translation: dense

16:47 Sep 4, 2019

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / General (circa 1900)

English term or phrase: Rank

From Hound of the Baskervilles.

"Rank reeds and lush, slimy water-plants sent an odour of decay and a heavy miasmatic vapour onto our faces, while a false step plunged us more than once thigh-deep into the dark, quivering mire, which shook for yards in soft undulations around our feet."

Does 'rank' here mean thickly-grown, foul-smelling, or did Doyle very intentionally chose this word precisely because it carries both connotations? Is there any evidence that would favor one over the other?

Lincoln Hui KudoZ activity Questions: 118 (none open) (1 without valid answers) (16 closed without grading) Answers: 501 Hong Kong
Local time: 11:52

Selected answer:dense

Explanation:
As you say, it does also mean foul smelling, but I think that's less likely. The water might smell, but not the reeds themselves.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rank

Selected response from:

philgoddard
United States

Grading comment

There's clearly no consensus here, but in my translation I rewrote the sentence to take into account the "densely grown" meaning, because the information about the decay appears regardless.
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

4 +8

dense

philgoddard

5 +4

foul-smelling

Mark Robertson

overgrown

Agneta Pallinder

5 -2

smells like rotten, rancid

Daniel Leite

Affected by putrefaction / Rotten

D. I. Verrelli

3 -2

musty

Juan Arturo Blackmore Zerón

Summary of reference entries provided

Not an AE / BE issue

Tony M

Discussion entries: 6

Mark Robertson

OED

14:51 Sep 5, 2019

The OED has almost a whole page devoted to rank with the range of meaning that concern us here:
stout and strong; full grown, mature; full large or gross in size; vigorous or luxuriant in growth; growing too luxuriantly; large and coarse; excessively great or large; swollen, puffed-up, grossly fat; abundant, copious; abounding in, full of; in close array crowded together, thick, dense; of a luxuriant, gross or coarse quality; liable to produce rank vegetation.

Tony M

France

@ David

13:49 Sep 5, 2019

But David, that was the whole point!
The argument was made the C-D would not have used an Americanism, but as we have since seen, this is not an Americanism anyway.
Hence the question didn't ever arise in the first place.

David Moore (X)

This cannot be

13:08 Sep 5, 2019

to do with UK - US English usage. Conan-Doyle was an English (English) writer, so this question cannot arise.

B D Finch

France

US or UK English

12:29 Sep 5, 2019

I admit I was wrong about the difference between US and UK usage, but still don't think it means "dense" here, though it could, of course, mean both dense and having a bad smell.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/rank
"...
rank in British 2
(ræŋk )
adjective
1.
showing vigorous and profuse growth
rank weeds
2.
highly offensive or disagreeable, esp in smell or taste
3. (prenominal)
complete or absolute; utter
a rank outsider
4.
coarse or vulgar; gross
his language was rank
...
rank in American 2
(ræŋk )
adjective
1.
growing vigorously and coarsely; overly luxuriant
rank grass
2.
producing or covered with a luxuriant crop; extremely fertile
3.
strong and offensive in smell or taste; rancid
4.
in bad taste; coarse ..."

Helena Chavarria

Spain

18:06 Sep 4, 2019

Synonyms for flagrant
Synonyms

blatant, conspicuous, egregious, glaring, gross, obvious, patent, pronounced, rank, striking

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flagrant

Helena Chavarria

Spain

18:04 Sep 4, 2019

According to The Little Oxford Dicionary (third edition, 1941):

rank, too luxuriant; coarse; loathsome; flagrant; gross

Answers

5 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

rank foul-smelling

Explanation:
I don't think your second meaning is there. If it was, he would have written ranked, which would have excluded your first meaning.

Mark Robertson
Local time: 04:52
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 12

Notes to answerer

Asker: Oxford dictionary gives the following example for the definition '(of vegetation) growing too thickly and coarsely': "clumps of rank grass"

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Sheila Wilson

10 mins

neutral

philgoddard: "Ranked" would make no sense. And if your interpretation is correct, he's effectively saying "foul-smelling reeds gave off a foul smell", which is not something Conan Doyle would do.

15 mins

-> C-D does what you say he would not do. Perhaps he liked the alliteration.

agree

B D Finch: The other meaning wouldn't be likely given the rest of the description, unless both meanings were intended. As philgoddard notes "ranked" would make no sense.

28 mins

-> That rankles. I meant standing in ranks.

neutral

Tony M: Densely-growing is perfectly good BE too, and I don't believe C-D would use such a pleonasm here.

32 mins

agree

Charlesp: yep - in this context

17 hrs

agree

Sarah Lewis-Morgan: This and the lush slimy water-plants both go with "sent an odour of decay", so this is the logical meaning.

18 hrs

neutral

D. I. Verrelli: I would have thought this ahead of "dense", although "dense" is also possible. Cf. https://johnwynnehopkins.wordpress.com/2019/05/16/23rd-octob...

21 hrs

7 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +8

rank

dense

Explanation:
As you say, it does also mean foul smelling, but I think that's less likely. The water might smell, but not the reeds themselves.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rank

philgoddard
United States
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 119

Grading comment

There's clearly no consensus here, but in my translation I rewrote the sentence to take into account the "densely grown" meaning, because the information about the decay appears regardless.

Notes to answerer

Asker: Well, I assume the vegetation would be in a constant state of rot.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Helena Chavarria: It's the only adjective that gives readers an idea how many reeds there were.

8 mins

-> Exactly. Thank you.

neutral

B D Finch: That's EN-US https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/rank. Rotting reeds do smell.//It lists it under EN-US, but I now see that it is listed under EN-UK too: see Discussion comment.

23 mins

-> Your reference doesn't say anything about it being US English.

agree

Tony M: According to BDF's ref. it has that same meaning in both BE and AE.

28 mins

-> Yes, it does. Thanks.

agree

Clauwolf

1 hr

agree

Tina Vonhof (X): According to Merriam Webster, it can mean either foul-smelling and dense. I would choose dense in this case.

2 hrs

agree

AllegroTrans

4 hrs

agree

Rachel Fell: not rotten - just too growing densely and not especially healthy - if they were rotting they'd die.

6 hrs

agree

Yvonne Gallagher: of course

7 hrs

neutral

D. I. Verrelli: Maybe so. Although I don't think we *must* know the number: we don't know the number of water-plants. And maybe the reeds *are* dying —why not? Cf. https://www.storyberries.com/poems-for-kids-the-frog-who-wou...

21 hrs

agree

Katalin Horváth McClure

1 day 11 hrs

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): -2

rank smells like rotten, rancid

Explanation:
In my opinion it was intentionally chosen to reinforce the idea of disgust.T

Daniel Leite
Brazil
Local time: 00:52
Native speaker of: Portuguese

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): -2

rank musty

Explanation:
https://www.google.com/search?q=musty meaning&rlz=1C1GCEA_en...

Juan Arturo Blackmore Zerón
Mexico
Local time: 22:52
Native speaker of: Spanish

22 hrs confidence:

rank Affected by putrefaction / Rotten

Explanation:
Definition 12 in OED at https://oed.com/view/Entry/158048?rskey=tOtDFv&result=4&isAd... :
"Affected by or resulting from putrefaction; [...], rotten; [...]."

The "rank reeds" are the/a source of the "odour of decay".

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 11 hrs (2019-09-06 04:37:03 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

To me it seems apropos to describe the source of the "odour of decay" the "heavy miasmatic vapour", which I take to be the putrefying reeds and slime-coated plants. (Maybe not all of the reeds are rotten, but reeds don't live forever, and eventually they will die and decay.)

Consider an alternative narration:
"Emerald-green water-plants and reeds the height of a small child sent an odour of decay and a heavy miasmatic vapour onto our faces, [...]"
It's still grammatical, descriptive and evocative. But this alternative description of the plants evokes instead images of their size and colour, and does not prefigure the images of noisome vapours evoked in the next part of the sentence. It's not a natural juxtaposition.

To me the idea of "rank"="dense" follows the same analysis: i.e. "Closely packed reeds and scattered clumps of water-plants [...]" would likewise not foreshadow the subsequent description of foul gases hanging in the air.
On the other hand, "Closely packed reeds and slimy water-plants scratched at any patch of bare skin and stained our clothes [...]." would be very logical.

D. I. Verrelli
Australia
Local time: 13:52
Native speaker of:

English

1 day 15 hrs confidence:

rank overgrown

Explanation:
To give the impression of growth that is too dense, which would also be associated with a smell of decay as plants die off from overcrowding - speaking as a small-scale farmer on boggy, reed-infested grassland.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 17 hrs (2019-09-06 10:28:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"While there are many reasons for reed cutting, it is usually done to keep the water flowing and to stop the overgrown reeds from choking the body of water."

Quoting from Envirotec magazine on "Managing reed growth safely"

Agneta Pallinder
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:52
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Swedish,

English
PRO pts in category: 8

Reference comments

39 mins peer agreement (net): +2

Reference: Not an AE / BE issue

Reference information:
Sadly BDF contradicts herself with her own ref.:

rank in British

adjective
1.
showing vigorous and profuse growth
rank weeds

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/rank

Tony M
France
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 309

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English translation: dense

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