Svenskaflicka
Fountain
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2002
- Posts
- 16,142
Today's entry -
long-winded - amicus
Careful! We have a proverb in Swedish, "If you speak of the trolls, they'll appear in your hallway."
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Today's entry -
long-winded - amicus
Well if sub-cutaneous means under the skin then cutaneous must me above the skin.
*Laugh* I've actually used "vouchsafe" in a story on here before.
Yes I looked up cutaneous too but what did the definition for warm spot mean exactly?
warm spot - a cutaneous sensory end organ that is stimulated by an increase in temperature
Sounds like a penis to me... am I the only one who thinks so?
Terry Pratchett has used vouchsafed a few times (usually by a Dwarf).
"Edgar Allan Poe used the word 'tintinnabulation' in a poem about bells."
As I understand it, tintinnabulation refers to the sound of small bells; as one might find with wind chimes, for example.
I have a nice warm spot, don't you?
If not, how about a nice mantle or cloak?
Ogg,
That one is not in my dictionary, what does pognophobia mean? I do get phobia , of course, but am lost on the pogno part...
Gigi
Fascinating thread, Allard. I was (2 hours ago) thinking about words, specifically foreign ones that are hard to translate into English. This made me think ... are there any English words that are hard to translate into other languages, or are English words too universal?A Writerly Thread: I agree AH could discuss topics that are more pertinent to writers than politics, so here is my addition.
Feel welcome to post your favorite obscure word, whether archaic or not and we can all expand our vocabularies at the same time.
Here is my entry from my research into the two Opium Wars of the 1800's;
stupefacient - n. bringing about a stupor: stupefying, narcotic from Webster's 7th Collegiate Dictionary
Fascinating thread, Allard. I was (2 hours ago) thinking about words, specifically foreign ones that are hard to translate into English. This made me think ... are there any English words that are hard to translate into other languages, or are English words too universal?
Thanks, Charley
I didn't have knowledge know about the podiatrist difference in England until this thread.
The English have different slang words that we have heard, like lift for elevator and fag for cigarette, of course.
The Aussies say arse instead of ass and rarely use pussy to describe a vagina when cunt will do. No offense intended.
I love learning these variations and therefore welcome international input on this thread.
Today's offering -
poison-pen - written with malice and spite, (usually anonymously) as in "Does JBJ have the poison-pen syndrome or what? hehehe
And yet, dear Og, so many other languages have words that cannot succinctly translate into English. A Portuguese word I learned today: Saudade. It cannot be translated into English and mean the same thing. I guess I was referring to English words that are so English specific that a translator (any language) would have a hard time translating that word in a foreign language. Are there any words like that in the English language?There must be.
The Oxford English Dictionary in its complete form is massive.
Few other languages have so many possible words.
Og
And yet, dear Og, so many other languages have words that cannot succinctly translate into English. A Portuguese word I learned today: Saudade. It cannot be translated into English and mean the same thing. I guess I was referring to English words that are so English specific that a translator (any language) would have a hard time translating that word in a foreign language. Are there any words like that in the English language?
The UK usage is arse, too. An ass is to be ridden on.
"Lift" is not slang. It is the British English equivalent of US elevator.
There are many more differences e.g about cars:
UK/US
Bonnet/Hood
Boot/Trunk
Bumper/Fender
Windscreen/Windshield
Tyre/Tire
Gear stick/Shift stick
Changing gear/Shifting
Pavement/Sidewalk
Roundabout/ ?
Motorway/Freeway
Og
Try translating onamatopeia into another language with a single word.
Og
I understand where you are coming from, but idioms like Little Englander and Morris Dancer obviously don't apply because they're idioms. Every language has a word for bastard, cunt and fuck - or many words for them. All of them can be replaced by one word or another that will convey the exact same meaning. No matter what context you use the word "bastard", for example, it can always be translated. What I'm asking about, is a word in English that cannot be fully understood in a translation in any other language. The word "saudade" in Portuguese, as example, cannot be understood in English without a lengthy explanation. There is no one word in English that can convey all that that word means in Portuguese.I'm not sure but how about these:
Trait
Imply
Infer
Little Englander
Morris Dancer
Get
Put (put the thingamyjig in the wotsit under there)
The several uses of "bastard", "cunt" and "fuck" that vary according to context and intonation.
Og