And lo on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:46:32 -0000, Hildur K.  
<hil### [at] 3dcafemailevery1net> did spake, saying:

>
>> >>>
>> >>> "Guð minn góður, ég er með öxi í hausnum!"
>> >>>
>> >>> in my tongue. ;-)
>> >>>
>> >> Iceland?
>> >
>> > Yes, how did you guess?
>> >
>> ehh, pattern matching?
>
> Oh, the link, I didn´t see it the first time. Sorry :-/
>
> What I wrote is not a 100% match but means the same. Which only proves  
> that
> there are always several ways to say the same thing in any lanuage.
>
> This only makes it even more difficult for the rest of us to figure  
> things out
> when we don´t know all possible nuances of a language. And which also  
> makes
> on-line translators necessary but usually not very helpful.
>
> Like a simple news headline: "Bush and Sharon met in Washington"  
> translates to
> "A shrub and a piece of broken flower pot met in the laundry".
>
> Makes you wonder... a lot.

No doubt it would have been a more productive meeting.

> By the way, in my language we have a single word to describe "a piece of  
> broken flower pot", -pottbrot-,

Which reads to me as Pot Broke, just shows where a fair chunk of English  
is derived from.

> I just can´t think of a single word to describe that in English. Is  
> there one? Like "a piece of broken glass" translates -glerbrot-the same  
> way ;-)

Potshard; it's a special case though as you don't have glassshard. You  
could have glass-shard though etc. but it's normally unhyphenated.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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"Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote:
> And lo on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:46:32 -0000, Hildur K.
> <hil### [at] 3dcafemailevery1net> did spake, saying:
>

> Potshard; it's a special case though as you don't have glassshard. You
> could have glass-shard though etc. but it's normally unhyphenated.
>
Thanks :-) Always trying to add to my vocabulary.

Hildur

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And lo on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:16:25 -0000, Hildur K.  
<hil### [at] 3dcafemailevery1net> did spake, saying:

> "Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote:
>> And lo on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:46:32 -0000, Hildur K.
>> <hil### [at] 3dcafemailevery1net> did spake, saying:
>>
>
>> Potshard; it's a special case though as you don't have glassshard. You
>> could have glass-shard though etc. but it's normally unhyphenated.
>>
> Thanks :-) Always trying to add to my vocabulary.

or Potsherd. In archaelogy a sherd is a part of a broken pot and a shard  
is part of broken glass, but you can still have a potshard. Got to love  
this language.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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>
> or Potsherd. In archaelogy a sherd is a part of a broken pot and a shard
> is part of broken glass, but you can still have a potshard. Got to love
> this language.


leaving the space blank, it simply picked the first word starting with s-h-a-r
which is shard! It could just as well have been -share- or -sharp-

or my favorite: -shark-!



I remember -trying- to read an article, -presumably- about 3D art, translated
from French to English. The translation kept on repeating that everything was
-gold-, over and over again. Very confusing. Obviously this was not to be taken
literally in this context.


expression in French, meaning -great- or -best- maybe? Does this ring a bell
with any of you fluent French speaking people?

Hildur

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Hildur K. wrote:
> I remember -trying- to read an article, -presumably- about 3D art, translated
> from French to English. The translation kept on repeating that everything was
> -gold-, over and over again. Very confusing. Obviously this was not to be taken
> literally in this context.
> 

> expression in French, meaning -great- or -best- maybe? Does this ring a bell
> with any of you fluent French speaking people?

As far as I know it is not any more common in French than in English. 
Indeed it has this meaning of "greatest" or "best", for example golden 
ratio in English translates as "le nombre d'or" (golden number) in French.

There might be cases that differ between both languages. For instance we 
have "un livre d'or", wich translates as "a guestbook" in English. I'm 
sure the reverse also exists...

-- 
Vincent

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And lo on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:10:24 -0000, Vincent Le Chevalier  
<gal### [at] libertyALLsurfSPAMfr> did spake, saying:

> Hildur K. wrote:
>> I remember -trying- to read an article, -presumably- about 3D art,  
>> translated
>> from French to English. The translation kept on repeating that  
>> everything was
>> -gold-, over and over again. Very confusing. Obviously this was not to  
>> be taken
>> literally in this context.
>>  This lead me to the conclusion that -gold- (d´or?) must be used in a  
>> specific
>> expression in French, meaning -great- or -best- maybe? Does this ring a  
>> bell
>> with any of you fluent French speaking people?
>
> As far as I know it is not any more common in French than in English.  
> Indeed it has this meaning of "greatest" or "best", for example golden  
> ratio in English translates as "le nombre d'or" (golden number) in  
> French.
>
> There might be cases that differ between both languages. For instance we  
> have "un livre d'or", wich translates as "a guestbook" in English.

At one time was the guestbook (or equivalent) important enough to be  
covered in gold leaf?

> I'm sure the reverse also exists...

I was reading a book which mentioned that bureaucracy is the obvious  
combination of bureau and -cracy. Now -cracy roughly means 'ruled by' and  
bureau is a desk; except that got its name from the *woolen cloth* used to  
cover the desks of important people. So the literal translation of  
bureaucracy is 'ruled by woolen cloth' or as the book put in 'ruled by  
green baize'.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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Phil Cook wrote:
> I was reading a book which mentioned that bureaucracy is the obvious 
> combination of bureau and -cracy. Now -cracy roughly means 'ruled by' 
> and bureau is a desk; except that got its name from the *woolen cloth* 
> used to cover the desks of important people. So the literal translation 
> of bureaucracy is 'ruled by woolen cloth' or as the book put in 'ruled 
> by green baize'.

Bureau is also 'office' in French, and I always thought that meaning 
came first, as the type of desk referred to in English is like a really 
compact office. Chicken or egg? :-)

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And lo on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:21:34 -0000, Bill Pragnell  
<bil### [at] hotmailcom> did spake, saying:

> Phil Cook wrote:
>> I was reading a book which mentioned that bureaucracy is the obvious  
>> combination of bureau and -cracy. Now -cracy roughly means 'ruled by'  
>> and bureau is a desk; except that got its name from the *woolen cloth*  
>> used to cover the desks of important people. So the literal translation  
>> of bureaucracy is 'ruled by woolen cloth' or as the book put in 'ruled  
>> by green baize'.
>
> Bureau is also 'office' in French, and I always thought that meaning  
> came first, as the type of desk referred to in English is like a really  
> compact office. Chicken or egg? :-)

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Bureau states the origin as "burel"  
a coarse woolen cloth etc.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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Phil Cook wrote:
> And lo on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:21:34 -0000, Bill Pragnell 
> <bil### [at] hotmailcom> did spake, saying:
> 
>> Phil Cook wrote:
>>> I was reading a book which mentioned that bureaucracy is the obvious 
>>> combination of bureau and -cracy. Now -cracy roughly means 'ruled by' 
>>> and bureau is a desk; except that got its name from the *woolen 
>>> cloth* used to cover the desks of important people. So the literal 
>>> translation of bureaucracy is 'ruled by woolen cloth' or as the book 
>>> put in 'ruled by green baize'.
>>
>> Bureau is also 'office' in French, and I always thought that meaning 
>> came first, as the type of desk referred to in English is like a 
>> really compact office. Chicken or egg? :-)
> 
> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Bureau states the origin as 
> "burel" a coarse woolen cloth etc.

Interesting. Etymology is indeed a tangled web of upholstery.

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"Phil Cook" <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote:
> And lo on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:21:34 -0000, Bill Pragnell
> <bil### [at] hotmailcom> did spake, saying:
>
> > Phil Cook wrote:
> >> I was reading a book which mentioned that bureaucracy is the obvious
> >> combination of bureau and -cracy. Now -cracy roughly means 'ruled by'
> >> and bureau is a desk; except that got its name from the *woolen cloth*
> >> used to cover the desks of important people. So the literal translation
> >> of bureaucracy is 'ruled by woolen cloth' or as the book put in 'ruled
> >> by green baize'.

Here is another completely different explanation:

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/-cracy

Hildur

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