|
Ah, was it about Buddenbrooks senior, or Herr Overdieck? I think it might be the latter, where:
... his wife had a new pet name for her husband: 'You good old bell-wether,' she said, and laughed so hard that her cap bobbed up and down. (page 25 of the Penguin.)
Given that a bell-wether is a castrated ram who leads the flock of sheep and has a bell round his neck so you can hear where they are if you can't see them, I'm not sure how he would have felt about that term!
|