I wish English had a word for this!

The best topics from Languages & Linguistics, kept on a permanent basis.
User avatar
Kalor
Niš
Niš
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:01 pm
Location: NY, United States / Valosa, Ka'an
Contact:

Post by Kalor »

Soap wrote:I wish English had a word for the emotion you feel when someone is talking to you as if youve made a ridiculously infantile mistake (and you havent), or when theyve just shown you that you ARE stupid and keep talking to you like everything's normal, perhaps because they assume you're used to being made to feel stupid, or for any situation in general when you feel the urge to roll your eyes at someone or say "I'm not THAT dumb!" Sarcasm doesnt really mean the same thing. For the first two examples, Ive just used "...." for this emotion. Here's the first example:

Visitor: Hi, which door should I use to get into the sign-up room?
Bystander: Ummm ... probably the one that says Entrance! (but there are two doors that say that and the Visitor knows that only one of them opens)
Visitor: ....

Here's another example:
Girl: Pass me the yellow roll of tape please.
Boy: This one?
Girl: Yeah.
Boy: Are you sure? That's *double sided* tape!
Girl: ....

Here's another example. This one sounds a bit forced because I have to provide the context for it to make sense in such a short space:

Courtney brought me to the digital camera show table. "I tied them to the shelf with security cables, just like the boss told me to! Now we can get on with the show and not worry about customers stealing the cameras!" I knew, of course, that the boss had told her to put them out loose, not tie them up. And she had done a horrible job fastening them, anyway. I decided to just play dumb. "I thought the boss said something else, hold on, I'll be right back." I came back a minute later and said to her "No, really, the boss said it's OK, we can put them out loose, right on the table!" And so I ripped the cameras free from her security cables one by one and handed them to her. She looked at me _______ically.
Sounds sort of like an ideophone. I wish English had these!
[url=http://fatpxls.com/datastor/velu.pdf]Velu[/url]
[quote="Radius Solis"]The other cow is stuck in the mud and keeps going HEE-HAW because it's having an identity crisis.[/quote]

User avatar
Lleu
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:38 am
Location: Tkaronto

Post by Lleu »

Soap wrote:I wish English had a word for the emotion you feel when someone is talking to you as if youve made a ridiculously infantile mistake (and you havent), or when theyve just shown you that you ARE stupid and keep talking to you like everything's normal, perhaps because they assume you're used to being made to feel stupid, or for any situation in general when you feel the urge to roll your eyes at someone or say "I'm not THAT dumb!" Sarcasm doesnt really mean the same thing. For the first two examples, Ive just used "...." for this emotion. Here's the first example:

Visitor: Hi, which door should I use to get into the sign-up room?
Bystander: Ummm ... probably the one that says Entrance! (but there are two doors that say that and the Visitor knows that only one of them opens)
Visitor: ....

Here's another example:
Girl: Pass me the yellow roll of tape please.
Boy: This one?
Girl: Yeah.
Boy: Are you sure? That's *double sided* tape!
Girl: ....

Here's another example. This one sounds a bit forced because I have to provide the context for it to make sense in such a short space:

Courtney brought me to the digital camera show table. "I tied them to the shelf with security cables, just like the boss told me to! Now we can get on with the show and not worry about customers stealing the cameras!" I knew, of course, that the boss had told her to put them out loose, not tie them up. And she had done a horrible job fastening them, anyway. I decided to just play dumb. "I thought the boss said something else, hold on, I'll be right back." I came back a minute later and said to her "No, really, the boss said it's OK, we can put them out loose, right on the table!" And so I ripped the cameras free from her security cables one by one and handed them to her. She looked at me _______ically.
Ha, that happened to me just minutes ago: we've been in Florida the past week, and when I was packing my toothbrush, toothpaste, and such, I found the comb my mom gave me (I forgot to pack one). I decided, since my hair wasn't very mussed (<--a great word), that I wouldn't bother combing it. This is what happened when I tried to give it back (first to Dad, since he was the first parent I saw):

Me: Where does this comb go?
Dad: Are you finished with it?
Me: Yes.
Mom: Did you comb your hair?
Me: No...
Mom: Then you're not done with it.
Me: ...

I feel like there is a word, but I can't think what it is.

Let's coin one. How about ellipsic? Just based on the text representation.
agus tha mo chluasan eòlach air a’ mhac-talla fhathast / às dèidh dhomh dùsgadh
(mona nicleòid wagner, “fo shneachd”)

imploder
Niš
Niš
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Jun 28, 2006 2:00 pm
Location: Brno, Czech Republic
Contact:

Post by imploder »

One can call the discussion about the comb an infinite loop. Czech has a common phrase for such trappy situations: začarovaný kruh - "enchanted circle"
[url=http://awkwords.wsr3.net]Awkwords - word generator[/url] | [url=http://awkwords.wsr3.net/help.html]Documentation & download[/url]

julianallees
Niš
Niš
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:33 pm
Location: Australia

Post by julianallees »

Oh, so you're bilingual, how awesome. I've always wanted to be bilingual, but find it rather challenging. Currently learning French and Greek at my school, and yer, also making my 'Own' languages, which just makes me feel I have my own bilinguality!

Czech, now that seems interesting. I have the Czech language on a CD 'Eureka's Languages of the World', it seems different and intriguing.

Just thought I spread my word, and yer, I personally believe that the world 'Where' would be a good English example. But me personally, even though it might be incorrect at a linguistical matter, would say "What position are you......", but yer, that's long and probably wrong, but it would be what I would say. Anyway, better go, Salut!

Yours,

julianallees

26th March, 2008 9:27pm :D :!: :mrgreen: :!:
Paradise is awaiting you........

TaylorS
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 557
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:44 pm
Location: Moorhead, MN, USA

Post by TaylorS »

Whimemsz wrote:
BGMan wrote:
linguoboy wrote:
Ghenris wrote:English is very poor in pronouns.
"I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they"... There should be a plural "you".
In many dialects, there is. If you were learning American English, you could pick up "y'all".
I use it whenever I can get away with it. It is still considered informal, like ihr/euch in German; on the other hand, it seems to be spreading around the country and is no longer confined to Southerners and Black Americans. In northern states, it still isn't as common as "you guys", however.

The problem is figuring out a possessive form for "y'all". Having to fall back on "your" appears to be the only solution at this point, since "y'alls" sounds like something you'd say only if you really *were* from the Deep South. (Exasperatingly, I hear "you guyses" all the time: "Hey, is this you guyses CD player?")
What? But...but...

Nearly everyone in Texas who uses y'all has y'all's as the plural. I guess you're including that in "Deep South", but I mean, that's where y'all is most often found.

I don't know how often people around me say you guys'--I agree it sounds kind of cumbersome. Personally, I usually say your guys (or sometimes your guys').
In my neck of the woods we say "you guys/you folks" and "you guys's/you folks's) and it's never seemed combersome at all. Maybe it's a subconscious prejudice against Southerners, but I've never liked "y'all.

TaylorS
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 557
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:44 pm
Location: Moorhead, MN, USA

Post by TaylorS »

Ollock wrote:
Come to West Virginia. Here, some dialects have three distincions: you (singular), y'all (small group), and all y'all (large group/everyone within earshot).
!!! O_O !!!

A distnction between different types of 2nd personal plural (large group vs. small group) developing? Interesting!!! I might need to ad this too my conlag...

TaylorS
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 557
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2008 1:44 pm
Location: Moorhead, MN, USA

Post by TaylorS »

Guitarplayer wrote:English also has no direct translation of German "nervig" or "genervt". If a thing is nervig, it is steppping on your nerves — genervt is the state you are in then.
Irritated? Agitated? Nervous?

TomHChappell
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 807
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 2:58 pm

Post by TomHChappell »

"I only had three nerves left and you just got on two of them."

TomHChappell
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 807
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 2:58 pm

Post by TomHChappell »

(Sorry, this post was in the wrong thread. I've moved it to the "what dialect ... ?" thread.)
:oops:
Last edited by TomHChappell on Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:49 am, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Yiuel Raumbesrairc
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 668
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:17 pm
Location: Nyeriborma, Elme, Melomers

Post by Yiuel Raumbesrairc »

TaylorS wrote:
Guitarplayer wrote:English also has no direct translation of German "nervig" or "genervt". If a thing is nervig, it is steppping on your nerves — genervt is the state you are in then.
Irritated? Agitated? Nervous?
It's something like "annoying", but stronger. In French we have equivalents :

C'est énervant = It's really annoying.
Je suis énervé = I am really annoyed.
"Ez amnar o amnar e cauč."
- Daneydzaus

User avatar
Wycoval
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 110
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 11:49 am
Location: Body of an adult, mind of a child.
Contact:

Post by Wycoval »

Yiuel wrote:
TaylorS wrote:
Guitarplayer wrote:English also has no direct translation of German "nervig" or "genervt". If a thing is nervig, it is steppping on your nerves — genervt is the state you are in then.
Irritated? Agitated? Nervous?
It's something like "annoying", but stronger. In French we have equivalents :

C'est énervant = It's really annoying.
Je suis énervé = I am really annoyed.
Colloquial: You're on my last nerve / Your're workin' my nerve
[size=200]☧[/size]

User avatar
Niedokonany
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 244
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:31 pm
Location: Kliwia Czarna

Post by Niedokonany »

I remember that when I started to learn German and later English I considered it annoying that they don't have a direct equivalent of Polish jaki (or Russian какой), and one has to get by somehow using "what", "which" and "what sort of" instead.
uciekajcie od światów konających

ratammer
Sanci
Sanci
Posts: 37
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:22 am

Post by ratammer »

Soap wrote:I wish English had a word for the emotion you feel when someone is talking to you as if youve made a ridiculously infantile mistake (and you havent), or when theyve just shown you that you ARE stupid and keep talking to you like everything's normal, perhaps because they assume you're used to being made to feel stupid, or for any situation in general when you feel the urge to roll your eyes at someone or say "I'm not THAT dumb!" Sarcasm doesnt really mean the same thing. For the first two examples, Ive just used "...." for this emotion. Here's the first example:

Visitor: Hi, which door should I use to get into the sign-up room?
Bystander: Ummm ... probably the one that says Entrance! (but there are two doors that say that and the Visitor knows that only one of them opens)
Visitor: ....

Here's another example:
Girl: Pass me the yellow roll of tape please.
Boy: This one?
Girl: Yeah.
Boy: Are you sure? That's *double sided* tape!
Girl: ....

Here's another example. This one sounds a bit forced because I have to provide the context for it to make sense in such a short space:

Courtney brought me to the digital camera show table. "I tied them to the shelf with security cables, just like the boss told me to! Now we can get on with the show and not worry about customers stealing the cameras!" I knew, of course, that the boss had told her to put them out loose, not tie them up. And she had done a horrible job fastening them, anyway. I decided to just play dumb. "I thought the boss said something else, hold on, I'll be right back." I came back a minute later and said to her "No, really, the boss said it's OK, we can put them out loose, right on the table!" And so I ripped the cameras free from her security cables one by one and handed them to her. She looked at me _______ically.
Well, I'm going to have to put a word like this into Zhasi.

BGMan
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 97
Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 2:37 pm
Location: Idaho, USA

Post by BGMan »

Soap wrote:I wish English had a word for the emotion you feel when someone is talking to you as if youve made a ridiculously infantile mistake (and you havent), or when theyve just shown you that you ARE stupid and keep talking to you like everything's normal, perhaps because they assume you're used to being made to feel stupid, or for any situation in general when you feel the urge to roll your eyes at someone or say "I'm not THAT dumb!" Sarcasm doesnt really mean the same thing. For the first two examples, Ive just used "...." for this emotion. Here's the first example:

Visitor: Hi, which door should I use to get into the sign-up room?
Bystander: Ummm ... probably the one that says Entrance! (but there are two doors that say that and the Visitor knows that only one of them opens)
Visitor: ....

Here's another example:
Girl: Pass me the yellow roll of tape please.
Boy: This one?
Girl: Yeah.
Boy: Are you sure? That's *double sided* tape!
Girl: ....

Here's another example. This one sounds a bit forced because I have to provide the context for it to make sense in such a short space:

Courtney brought me to the digital camera show table. "I tied them to the shelf with security cables, just like the boss told me to! Now we can get on with the show and not worry about customers stealing the cameras!" I knew, of course, that the boss had told her to put them out loose, not tie them up. And she had done a horrible job fastening them, anyway. I decided to just play dumb. "I thought the boss said something else, hold on, I'll be right back." I came back a minute later and said to her "No, really, the boss said it's OK, we can put them out loose, right on the table!" And so I ripped the cameras free from her security cables one by one and handed them to her. She looked at me _______ically.
That's a good one, especially since I feel it all the time. Yikes. The closest I can get is "to feel insulted by another's condescension". In the last example, "She looked at me as if insulted by my condescension". English has wiped out so many of its Germanic words that it can't really make a nice compound word like German, where one might use die Herablassungserbitterung.

Fruithat
Sanci
Sanci
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:23 am
Location: Pinole, CA

Post by Fruithat »

mbm wrote: Der wievielte Präsident der USA war Reagan?
(= of the presidents of the USA, what number was Reagan?)
Ha! You must have been reading the same book on Japanese that I was!
Last edited by Fruithat on Fri Sep 22, 2017 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Niedokonany
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 244
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:31 pm
Location: Kliwia Czarna

Post by Niedokonany »

Can't one just say "which": "which president of the USA was Reagan?"?

In Polish you'd ask "którym prezydentem Stanów Zjednoczonych był Reagan?" (which.INSTR president.INSTR state.GEN.PL united.GEN.PL was Reagan[NOM]), also "którym z kolei..." (lit. which in the order).
uciekajcie od światów konających

User avatar
Terra
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 571
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 10:01 am

Post by Terra »

Can't one just say "which": "which president of the USA was Reagan?"?
Not really, that sounds either like a rhetorical question, or something you'd ask if there were pictures of many presidents on the table, and you wanted to know which one was Reagan's picture.

User avatar
Lleu
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:38 am
Location: Tkaronto

Post by Lleu »

FinalZero wrote:
Can't one just say "which": "which president of the USA was Reagan?"?
Not really, that sounds either like a rhetorical question, or something you'd ask if there were pictures of many presidents on the table, and you wanted to know which one was Reagan's picture.
You can, however, say "what number president of the USA was Reagen?", at least IMD.
agus tha mo chluasan eòlach air a’ mhac-talla fhathast / às dèidh dhomh dùsgadh
(mona nicleòid wagner, “fo shneachd”)

User avatar
Terra
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 571
Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 10:01 am

Post by Terra »

You can, however, say "what number president of the USA was Reagen?", at least IMD.
agreed

User avatar
Rui
Avisaru
Avisaru
Posts: 541
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2006 9:14 pm
Location: Beiʒing 拆那

Post by Rui »

FinalZero wrote:
Can't one just say "which": "which president of the USA was Reagan?"?
Not really, that sounds either like a rhetorical question, or something you'd ask if there were pictures of many presidents on the table, and you wanted to know which one was Reagan's picture.
Eh, IMD, "which president of the USA was Reagan?" would imply asking what number he was (or else asking about something he did during his presidency that would distinguish him from others). If there were pictures on the table, etc. then I would ask Which one is Reagan?. The is/was is actually pretty important in distinguishing them, to me.

User avatar
ekobor
Sanci
Sanci
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 12:29 am
Location: The Land o' Lakes

Post by ekobor »

Ghenris wrote:English is very poor in pronouns.
"I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they"... There should be a plural "you".
Well, as 'you' was originally the plural, and 'thou' the dropped singular, I believe it would be better to look for a singular you, don't you think?

Though of course, you probably already know that, and I sound like a fool.
Soušui igo nuř bangoř heurlich
I wish only to be happy

User avatar
Niedokonany
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 244
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:31 pm
Location: Kliwia Czarna

Post by Niedokonany »

How do you call it in English, when one is oversimplifying a certain issue (for the sake of brevity, or more as a slip of tongue) in expectation that one's interlocutor will supplement the missing part in his mind? In Polish it's called skrót myślowy lit. "thought shortcut"; I can't find any English equivalent anywhere.
uciekajcie od światów konających

User avatar
Boşkoventi
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 157
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:22 pm
Location: Somewhere north of Dixieland

Post by Boşkoventi »

Piotr wrote:How do you call it in English, when one is oversimplifying a certain issue (for the sake of brevity, or more as a slip of tongue) in expectation that one's interlocutor will supplement the missing part in his mind? In Polish it's called skrót myślowy lit. "thought shortcut"; I can't find any English equivalent anywhere.
I suppose I'd call that "skipping/glossing over the details". Though here there's more of an expectation that you'll fill in the rest later. Or I might "let you fill in the blanks".
Radius Solis wrote:The scientific method! It works, bitches.
Είναι όλα Ελληνικά για μένα.

User avatar
Lleu
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 96
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:38 am
Location: Tkaronto

Post by Lleu »

There needs to be an adjective for "feeling schadenfreude".

EDIT: Other than "sadistic"...that's boring.
agus tha mo chluasan eòlach air a’ mhac-talla fhathast / às dèidh dhomh dùsgadh
(mona nicleòid wagner, “fo shneachd”)

Jashan
Lebom
Lebom
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2003 6:26 am
Location: Oklahoma
Contact:

Post by Jashan »

Arunaza wrote:There needs to be an adjective for "feeling schadenfreude".

EDIT: Other than "sadistic"...that's boring.
Before I knew what "schadenfreude" was (or rather, that the word existed), I coined a word for it on my own: doomglory.

doomglory n. a person who takes delight in the misfortune of others indirectly (rather than causing such misfortune directly).

I guess you could adjectivize it as doomglor(y)ish or doomglorious.

Not that it will ever catch on.

Post Reply