Defining "quain"
In "Kinds of Verse" poet Gerard Manley Hopkins writes
The former [rhythmic repetition] gives more tone, candorem, style, chasteness, the latter [intermittent repetition] more brilliancy, starriness, quain, margaretting.
I've looked the web over (by which I mean the freely available online dictionaries, Wordnik, Urban Dictionary, and so forth) and only found definitions on Urban Dictionary. These, though, are multiple, without apparent overlap, and do not seem to fit the usage included here.
Urban Dictionary: quain
- "Adjective describing anything that is crazy and out of control."
- "Generous, or very parranoid. [sic]"
I only include these because I have found nothing else. There is of course, the possibility of error in the text, in which case I'd appreciate help determining the intended word. The text appears on page 125 of Everyman's Library's Hopkins.
Solution 1:
It is rare these days that one requires access to the OED. Free online dictionaries almost always have at least some entry on any given word, and you’d typically only turn to the OED for a richer etymology or more authoritative citations.
In this case, however:
The definition given is:
G. M. Hopkins' name for: an angle, a wedge-like corner. Also: angularity.
Note that it specifically attributes this usage to Hopkins, as possibly his own coinage or at least affectation.
On how he came up with it, OED speculates
Origin: Probably a variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: quoin n.
Which itself is defined as:
- Building.
a. Originally: an external angle of a wall; an outer corner of a building. Subsequently also: any of the stones or bricks serving to form this angle; a cornerstone. Cf. coin n. 1.
Solution 2:
Found two references to Quain in an Edwardian guidebook to Norway "Norway and its fjords" by MA Wyllie, pages 248 and 250:
P248: ...bearded russians, englishmen, swedes, germans, QUAINS, finns and lapps fiiled the streets...
P250: ...lapp QUAIN, finn and all sorts of seafarer...
(my capitals)
Obviously a "race" of people but can find no references anywhere.
Solution 3:
A search of the full text of The Journals And Papers Of Gerard Manley Hopkins, shows that he uses the word quain several times. In one use, he writes:
Not unapparent that the Matterhorn is like a Greek galley strande 4 , a reared-up rostrum — the sharp quains or arretes the gunwales...
Other uses seem to be consistent with this use as a straight-lined edge.
This, and margaretted, are mentioned in connection with his theories on Inscape, so I assume margaretting is also some description of a physical shape.