In Spanish etc., campsite > camping, carpark > parking, etc., but then in German happy ending > happy End. Who cares? End is a genital euphemism in English, so a happy ending in a London massage parlour loses nothing in translation. The Happy End of Georg Anton Benda’s version of Romeo and Juliet is more…
The local branch of the Canute Society is campaigning against the (incorrect and correct) use of English in advertising: The RAE “no es una startup.” Confirmation in this video. ¡Numancia romana! Buenos días. pic.twitter.com/gIJ3hr1TqN — Maestro Ciruela (@Master_Plum) May 19, 2016 Tralala.
To the extent that she is not merely chucking us clickbait, Elena Horrillo’s piece on supposedly untranslatable Spanish expressions suggests she hasn’t read the English Wikipedia article, some of which has been translated into Spanish. Translating difficult expressions, sayings and proverbs like those cited was already a minor industry in the late Middle Ages (anyone…
Many old-style hardware shops in London have a reputation for poor customer service (an example). I wonder if they have struggled because the DIY-ers had no idea what they were looking for, and because the Slav professionals who have replaced them since 2004 have no idea what it is called. But they are usually fine…
Knightly tombs in churches with, resting at their feet, dogs that vary in aspect from lamb to lion: Briton Rivière shows the foreplay, but is the dog then bestonèd by sorrow (cf. the widowed Hindoo’s fiery fate), or is it simply (or even lysergically) sacrificed?
Man who can’t write English got a piece of paper from Harvard Business School. No problem: been there, seen that, finishing school for the N American ruling caste. But same man has got 307K followers on Twitter – even more than the Singing Organ Grinder – many of whom attach symbolic, patriotic importance to his…
BL: “The Latin word for ‘beggar’ (mendicus) is now believed to derive from an earlier word meaning ‘deformity’ or ‘lack’. Isidore, however, speculates a much more charming story, of a ‘custom among the ancients’ to ‘close the hungry mouth and extend a hand, as if speaking with the hand’ (manu dicere).” His etymologies for “the…
Shop deliveries free on foot in Leeds LS1-8 & LS13 Dismiss
