Can I ask a usage question, please?

Can something 'feel of' something, like it can smell of it or taste of it? Apple pie can taste of home, but can a hug feel of home? Or fingers on your cheek feel of soft summer rain? Or do I have to say that the thing 'felt like' the other thing?

I can't find any examples of the word being used this way on the net, and nor do the dictionaries list this usage. But does it sound wrong to people?

Rosy

Using 'feel' as a verb, 'it feels of' it sounds wrong to me. I can back this up with a corpus dictionary such as Collins COBUILD, which lists "feel like, feel as if" but not "feel of".

With 'feel' as a noun, 'the feel of', it's fine, of course.

Luisa

Thanks. I'm sure you're right, Luisa, it doesn't formally exist. I just wondered if I could use it anyway, you know, push the boundaries! But it's sounding odd to me as well, now. Maybe I need to say 'have the feel of'.

Rosy

Well it's not correct, but I'd know exactly what you meant, and why you want to do it. And 'felt like' isn't the same, quite, is it. Even 'in my hands it had the feel of home' isn't the same.

How about a spot of boundary-pushing...

Emma

I agree with Emma. Use it anyway, it sounds just right - succinct and effective.
p

Yes, i think it sounds fine, Rosy, and isn't that sometimes more important?

Casey x

OK, I'll leave it in, you've convinced me! Then the copy editor can have the fun of taking it out again. (If, by any miracle, it ever gets that far).

R x

I agree with luisa, it sounds better if used at the start of a scentence:

The taste of apple pie stirred memories of home.

Now Naomi's got me worried again. (Don't you hate days when you spend hours on one paragraph? Well, Ilm hakf way down the bnext oage actually, but I keep going back and twiddling.)

HELP!

It's a daughter being hugged by her mum. It began life as:

"Kate’s enveloping warmth felt, as it always had, of sanctuary, but Shelly could not quite let go of her own tension."

"The feel of Kate's enveloping warmth reminded her, as it always had, of sanctuary..." would be Naomi's version, perhaps.

"Kate’s enveloping warmth felt, as it always had, like sanctuary" is simple but weaker - feeling 'like' sanctuary isn't the same as having the feel of sanctuary.

"Kate's enveloping warmth had the feel.....of sanctuary" is OK, but then "as it always had" sounds wrong (two 'hads'. I could say "as it always did" but that's different - loses the from-when-she-was-a-kid feeling of it.

Someone reword it all for me, please!

Aaaaarrggghh.

Rosy

It's always worth trying it without the word that's causing the trouble. 'Feel' isn't the strongest of verbs anyway. How about:

"Kate's enveloping warmth was, as it always had been, sanctuary, but Shelly..."

or more smoothly

"Kate's enveloping warmth was sanctuary, as it always had been, but Shelly..."

Emma

<Added>

you could even cut the comma after sanctuary.

Or even:

"As always, the feel of Kate's enveloping warmth reminded her of sanctuary, but Shelly could not quite let go of her own tension."

<Added>

Or,

"Kate’s enveloping warmth reminded her of sanctuary, but Shelly could not quite let go of her own tension."

Thanks, Emma. Trouble is, it wasn't sanctuary. It had the feel of it, but ultimately it wasn't. Fundamentally I agree, though: forget the whole thing, and reconstruct the idea a different way entirely. But tomorrow!

R x

Should I stop now?

Yes tomorrow is quite often the answer to this horrid little snarls in the book's hair, I find.

Having said that, how about

'Kate's enveloping warmth, as always, seemed to be sanctuary, but...'

Emma

This could run and run