Learn English – “Stornry” Meaning

meaning

I was reading the Tao of Pooh, when I stumbled on this quote from the original Winnie the Pooh:

"Can they fly?" asked Roo.

"Yes," said Tigger, "they're very good flyers, Tiggers are, Stornry flyers."

What is the meaning of the word "Stornry?" I can guess from the context that it means very good, or excellent, but is it simply a word Tigger is making up on the spot here? I know Winnie the Pooh is known to use verbiage that is usually not considered within the age range of its target audience, is this another example of that?

Best Answer

Based on Galen Fott’s account, stornry is a typo found in American editions of A. A. Milne's 1928 The House at Pooh Corner; the English editions have strornry rather than stornry in the quoted passage. Fott then remarks,

it’s very obvious “strornry” is a British child’s way of saying “extraordinary” or “extraordinarily”.

Like strornry, both those words have three r’s in them, which I think makes it still more clear that stornry is a typo. But note that a 1905 book by Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children, has a form with two r's:

“It is most extraordinary rum!” said Peter.
“Most stronery!” echoed Phyllis – The Railway Children, page 302 (Ch. XIV)

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