Learn English – Does “bloodripe” actually exist as a word

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I’ve come on the adjective bloodripe in Nabokov’s Lolita (bold emphasis added):

. . . it had become quite a habit with me of not being too attentive
to women lest they come toppling, bloodripe, into my cold lap.

The passage contains a metaphor likening women to ripened fruits, so bloodripe is easily defined as fully ripe (although it’s quite an ironic adjective for a paedophile, such as Humbert Humbert). Yet, I can’t find it in any of the dictionaries at my disposal: for example, it is not in Merriam-Webster or Oxford Dictionary.

Does it actually exist, though not listed in the dictionaries, or is it Nabokov’s brainchild?

Best Answer

The OED lists a hyphenated form of the word:

blood-ripe adj. (of fruit) that is so ripe that the juice has become blood-coloured.

All three quotes in the OED (which date back to the 1840s) use the term when referencing literal fruit (mulberries or tomatoes, e.g.), not metaphorically, as cornbread described. Of course, that doesn't mean the word couldn't be used that way (apparently it has, albeit without the hyphen).

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