i was wondering whether your name has anything to do with the fonte avellana monastery in italy (in the marche region). which to me is almost synonym with the glades of arcady :)
i think "buona donna" only sounds derogatory in the euphemistic expression "figlio di buona donna" (literally, "son of a good woman"). otherwise it's unmarked
hey bilby! scusami se non mi faccio sentire, ma sto traducendo un libro dall'inglese, si tratta di un lavoro molto importante per me, perciò ho bisogno della massima concentrazione. però a fine novembre... i'll be back on track, be sure ;-)
refers to the sum of all societal influences upon mental health. the term is often used in a context critical of the mental environment in industrialized societies. it is argued that just as industrial societies produce physical toxins and pollutants which harm humans' physical health, they also produce psychological toxins (e.g. television, excessive noise, violent marketing tactics, psychotropic drugs) that cause psychological damage. this poor mental environment may help explain why rates of mental illness are higher in industrial societies than in the developing world. (from wikipedia)
a form of cultural sabotage inspired by situationism. a contemporary practice aimed at countering the invasion and omnipresence of commercial messages conveyed through the mass media, and their influence on human imagination and on the human mind.
It consists in deconstructing the texts and images of media industry through the technique of estrangement and detournement. the aim is to free individuals from their role as passive receivers and encourage them to critical consumption and a greater awareness of media language.
italian regional (central-southern) word for 'immondizia' (= garbage). the italian media have often used it to refer to the garbage crisis around naples and the campania region. adds a touch of local color to those piles of garbage...
erm... it seems i have skipped the list description. only ridiculous words are admitted. but maybe we could extend the lexicon to serious words and expressions as well... wouldn't that be interesting, too?
'the caste'. an expression coined by italian journalist gian antonio stella, and the title of his book about the privileges and corruption of the italian political class.
the 'sala delle cariatidi' in milan is a very atmospheric, redolent XVIII century hall of mirrors in the royal palace, you can see some photos of it here (taken by elisheba:-)): http://tinyurl.com/5nh58n
in italian, a cariatide caryatid is also a pejorative noun for an old, backward-looking person (e.g. una vecchia cariatide del regime - a diehard caryatid of the regime), or a mature/old woman.
volentieri bilby! fammi sapere quando vieni. e complimenti per il tuo ottimo italiano! mi fa piacere che tu abbia dato un'occhiata al mio flickr, ci sono molte altre foto di bologna... sei anche tu su flickr? :-) a presto
lo 'steig', ahahah :-)) agreed prolagus! i fear this will soon become the standard pronunciation... whether we like it or not, ignorance and mistakes in general are one of the main propulsive forces behind linguistic evolution...
still, if you ban weekend and ok, you may as well ban ALL loans from the italian language (!)
they've been with us for decades now, and are no longer perceived as foreign. so, while i agree that too many english imports - i mean words imported 'as they are', not calques - threaten to 'stunt' the growth of the italian language (but then look at german and the other german languages, the situation is even worse), i think being too strict is outmoded and unrealistic: linguistic trends are uncontrollable, a bit like viral epidemics, there's no use trying to fence them in...
hmm, not sure. michelangeli came from brescia (lombardia). some dictionaries do not list it as regional. ah, and of course it has to do with devils making a hell of a mess :-D
diavolèrio m. noun (regional, northern italy) = fuss, commotion, uproar. not to be confused with diavolerìa (oddity). anecdote: pianist arturo benedetti michelangeli often used this word to criticize a musician (or an orchestra) who played too loud or too fast: "fa(nno) un diavolerio...!"
what do you call the part BETWEEN the nostrils? does it have a name at all...? (ok, i stole this question from peter greenaway's "a zed a two noughts" :-D)
thank you chained bear! :-)) wordie is a really cool idea, it's lots of fun as well as interesting. i'll check out the other musical lists and add definitions as soon as i have some time
1. the miming of scenes from Homer's epics 2. a new figure of speech named after the cartoon character Homer Simpson, denoting an expression that reveals more than the speaker intended. (Wikipedia)
also discourse prosody, describes the way in which certain seemingly neutral words can come to carry positive or negative associations through frequently occurring with particular collocations.
An example given by John Sinclair is the combination set in, which has a negative prosody: rot is a prime example for what is going to set in. Other well-known examples are cause, which is also mostly used in a negative context (accident, catastrophe, etc.), though one can also say that something "caused happiness". (Wikipedia)
or lomo - this is for the "flicksters" -: a trademark, as well as a new trend in the revival of analog photography with a touch of patina, where much is left to chance. the lomographer's motto is: "don't think, just shoot".
LOMO is the acronym for the russian firm Leningradskoe Optiko-Mechani�?eskoe Ob"edinenie, which produced a compact camera called LCA, rediscovered in recent years by the lomographers.
sometimes they do, but always like synonyms: they can be very similar - or complement each other like synonym and antonym - but they never cover each other completely... and that's the exciting part :-))
i've just found out that the verb "to locuplete" was used by donald m. frame in his translation of rabelais's "gargantua and pantagruel" (oxford complete works of françois rabelais) in the sense "to enrich"
"signor missayre, my genius is not nately apt for what this flagitious nebulon says, to excoriate the cutucle of our gallic vernacule, but viceversally i fervidly operate, and by veles and rames applicate myself to LOCUPLETE it from the latinicome redundance" (p. 151)
as a transitive verb it has been used by umberto eco in italian (from the latin verb "locupletare"), meaning more or less to enrich, or to lavish with gifts, or to give abundantly.
Comments by elisheba
elisheba commented on the word ciupéta
ferrarese dialect for 'coppietta' (little pair). a variety of italian bread from ferrara consisting in two crossed thin, spiral-shaped baguettes
August 22, 2009
elisheba commented on the word walking bus
'piedibus'... what a bad example of macaronic latin :-S
March 29, 2009
elisheba commented on the word muah
same in italian. sounds like a cross-linguistic onomatopoeia
December 31, 2008
elisheba commented on the user corylusavellana
i was wondering whether your name has anything to do with the fonte avellana monastery in italy (in the marche region). which to me is almost synonym with the glades of arcady :)
December 31, 2008
elisheba commented on the word symposiarque
in ancient Rome he was referred to as a tricliniarca, from triclinium, the luxurious Roman dining room
December 22, 2008
elisheba commented on the word chrestus
early latin version of Christus. this was also one of the names of the Egyptian god Serapis, and can also be translated as 'Messiah'
December 18, 2008
elisheba commented on the word still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest
what a fool believes, he sees, it's always better than nothing (at all) :-D
December 18, 2008
elisheba commented on the list lost-in-transgenderation
i think "buona donna" only sounds derogatory in the euphemistic expression "figlio di buona donna" (literally, "son of a good woman"). otherwise it's unmarked
November 12, 2008
elisheba commented on the word gnome
rien poortvliet, wil huygens, "gnomes": a book, a myth!
October 30, 2008
elisheba commented on the word donutiverous
if i get what you mean, shouldn't it be donutivorous, by analogy with omnivorous/carnivorous, etc.?
October 29, 2008
elisheba commented on the user bilby
hey bilby! scusami se non mi faccio sentire, ma sto traducendo un libro dall'inglese, si tratta di un lavoro molto importante per me, perciò ho bisogno della massima concentrazione. però a fine novembre... i'll be back on track, be sure ;-)
October 27, 2008
elisheba commented on the word aldebaran
and doesn't it sound heavenly, too? :-)))
October 13, 2008
elisheba commented on the word mental environment
refers to the sum of all societal influences upon mental health. the term is often used in a context critical of the mental environment in industrialized societies. it is argued that just as industrial societies produce physical toxins and pollutants which harm humans' physical health, they also produce psychological toxins (e.g. television, excessive noise, violent marketing tactics, psychotropic drugs) that cause psychological damage. this poor mental environment may help explain why rates of mental illness are higher in industrial societies than in the developing world. (from wikipedia)
October 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the list this-modern-world
this is a very interesting list indeed
October 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the word culture jamming
a form of cultural sabotage inspired by situationism. a contemporary practice aimed at countering the invasion and omnipresence of commercial messages conveyed through the mass media, and their influence on human imagination and on the human mind.
It consists in deconstructing the texts and images of media industry through the technique of estrangement and detournement. the aim is to free individuals from their role as passive receivers and encourage them to critical consumption and a greater awareness of media language.
October 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the list italian-politics
after all, there is nothing serious about italian politics these days... everything's ridiculous :-D :-((
September 19, 2008
elisheba commented on the word carfree
SEPTEMBER 22 IS WORLD CARFREE DAY!
click on the logo!
September 19, 2008
elisheba commented on the word monnezza
italian regional (central-southern) word for 'immondizia' (= garbage). the italian media have often used it to refer to the garbage crisis around naples and the campania region. adds a touch of local color to those piles of garbage...
September 19, 2008
elisheba commented on the list italian-politics
erm... it seems i have skipped the list description. only ridiculous words are admitted. but maybe we could extend the lexicon to serious words and expressions as well... wouldn't that be interesting, too?
September 19, 2008
elisheba commented on the list mythical-qualities
wow, mythical qualities list is the most peopled of my lists now!! thank you, wordies! :-))
September 19, 2008
elisheba commented on the word la casta
'the caste'. an expression coined by italian journalist gian antonio stella, and the title of his book about the privileges and corruption of the italian political class.
http://tinyurl.com/3t77zh
September 18, 2008
elisheba commented on the list italian-politics
thanks for creating this list, prolagus! we're gonna have lots of laughs (or shed lots of tears...)
September 18, 2008
elisheba commented on the word herculean
nice add bilby, thanks! :-) more contributions are welcome!
September 18, 2008
elisheba commented on the word caryatid
the 'sala delle cariatidi' in milan is a very atmospheric, redolent XVIII century hall of mirrors in the royal palace, you can see some photos of it here (taken by elisheba:-)): http://tinyurl.com/5nh58n
September 17, 2008
elisheba commented on the list ancient-greek-costume-box
great list, jingle!
September 17, 2008
elisheba commented on the word caryatid
in italian, a cariatide caryatid is also a pejorative noun for an old, backward-looking person (e.g. una vecchia cariatide del regime - a diehard caryatid of the regime), or a mature/old woman.
September 17, 2008
elisheba commented on the word caryatid
the male counterpart of a caryatid is called telamon, and coincides with the mythological figure of the titan, Atlas
September 17, 2008
elisheba commented on the word porosity
that was illuminating, thank you! :-)
September 15, 2008
elisheba commented on the user delirium
hi, I'm a fellow translator with a music addiction problem :-))
September 15, 2008
elisheba commented on the word porosity
porosity/porousness. what are the differences in usage?
September 15, 2008
elisheba commented on the word reizüberflutung
it's a nice metaphor. in english the image evokes the idea of weight, burden - in german of water, flooding, swamping...
September 15, 2008
elisheba commented on the user bilby
volentieri bilby! fammi sapere quando vieni. e complimenti per il tuo ottimo italiano! mi fa piacere che tu abbia dato un'occhiata al mio flickr, ci sono molte altre foto di bologna... sei anche tu su flickr? :-) a presto
September 15, 2008
elisheba commented on the user bilby
http://dizionari.repubblica.it/
the english bilingual dictionary is a very good resource ;-)
September 14, 2008
elisheba commented on the list adbusters-lexicon
thank you! i will add definitions as soon as i can (i have to write them from scratch)
September 14, 2008
elisheba commented on the word extracomunitario
italian, spelt with one 'm'
September 14, 2008
elisheba commented on the user bilby
coming back to italy soon? that's great news, bilby! have you ever been to bologna? :-)
September 14, 2008
elisheba commented on the word loan
lo 'steig', ahahah :-)) agreed prolagus! i fear this will soon become the standard pronunciation... whether we like it or not, ignorance and mistakes in general are one of the main propulsive forces behind linguistic evolution...
September 14, 2008
elisheba commented on the word loan
still, if you ban weekend and ok, you may as well ban ALL loans from the italian language (!)
they've been with us for decades now, and are no longer perceived as foreign. so, while i agree that too many english imports - i mean words imported 'as they are', not calques - threaten to 'stunt' the growth of the italian language (but then look at german and the other german languages, the situation is even worse), i think being too strict is outmoded and unrealistic: linguistic trends are uncontrollable, a bit like viral epidemics, there's no use trying to fence them in...
September 14, 2008
elisheba commented on the word loan
Italians vote for ugliest English loan words: the Dante Alighieri Society list
http://snurl.com/3q4cg
September 14, 2008
elisheba commented on the word googly
i've read the article, which is really interesting. google and antitrust...
September 13, 2008
elisheba commented on the word gamut
thanks for this explanation, shevek!
September 12, 2008
elisheba commented on the word sympathy
and here she is, right on my desktop :-))
although you can't see it, i assure you she's vibrating in sympathy with my every keyboard stroke :-D
September 12, 2008
elisheba commented on the word sympathy
"to vibrate in sympathy" (usually referred to musical instruments, e.g. strings).
p.s. i love my tiny wooden turtle whose head is hypersensitive and oscillates with the slightest vibrations :-)
September 12, 2008
elisheba commented on the user Prolagus
not on bilby... judging from the words on his Italiano list, he would immediately get us :-D
September 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the word cafone
alas, cafonaggine is very common in italy, as well as menefreghismo... :-(
September 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the user bilby
that's interesting. how long ago was that? were you studying/working in italy? how long did you stay? am i asking too much questions? :-D
September 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the list italiano-2
che carina questa lista! :-)
September 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the user Prolagus
yeah paisà :-D from bologna
let's get connected! how many of us are there on wordie?
September 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the word capo di tutti capo
is something i really can't DIGEST about my country :@#
September 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the word diavolerio
hmm, not sure. michelangeli came from brescia (lombardia). some dictionaries do not list it as regional. ah, and of course it has to do with devils making a hell of a mess :-D
September 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the word diavolerio
diavolèrio m. noun (regional, northern italy) = fuss, commotion, uproar. not to be confused with diavolerìa (oddity). anecdote: pianist arturo benedetti michelangeli often used this word to criticize a musician (or an orchestra) who played too loud or too fast: "fa(nno) un diavolerio...!"
September 10, 2008
elisheba commented on the word collarless
fr. sans collier (chien perdu sans collier)
it. sciolto (cane sciolto)
September 7, 2008
elisheba commented on the word pibgorn
really interesting one... you've given me a brilliant idea for a neologism based on an anagram... ;-)
September 4, 2008
elisheba commented on the word visual thesaurus
a thesaurus based on the mind map concept. a mind map is a tool for visualizing complex networks of items or ideas.
September 4, 2008
elisheba commented on the word nostrils
what do you call the part BETWEEN the nostrils? does it have a name at all...? (ok, i stole this question from peter greenaway's "a zed a two noughts" :-D)
September 4, 2008
elisheba commented on the user reesetee
thank you for your suggestions reesetee :-) i'm already having great fun in the wordiesphere :-))
September 4, 2008
elisheba commented on the user chained_bear
thank you chained bear! :-)) wordie is a really cool idea, it's lots of fun as well as interesting. i'll check out the other musical lists and add definitions as soon as i have some time
September 4, 2008
elisheba commented on the word zartflöte
name of an organ stop
September 2, 2008
elisheba commented on the word ukelin
oh, too bad! it's been removed... :-((
September 2, 2008
elisheba commented on the word ophicleide
interesting one, thank you! :-)
September 2, 2008
elisheba commented on the word adamant
i particularly like the collocation "to be adamant that"
September 2, 2008
elisheba commented on the word mitteleuropäische
mitteleuropäische is the female form of the adjective - the base form is mitteleuropäisch
September 2, 2008
elisheba commented on the word adamant
see also syn. adamantine (poet.) - "unbreakable"
September 2, 2008
elisheba commented on the word mythopoetic
adjective referring to the creation of myths - myth-making. poetic here is used in the etymological greek sense (poiesis = creation, making).
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word homerism
1. the miming of scenes from Homer's epics 2. a new figure of speech named after the cartoon character Homer Simpson, denoting an expression that reveals more than the speaker intended. (Wikipedia)
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word semantic prosody
also discourse prosody, describes the way in which certain seemingly neutral words can come to carry positive or negative associations through frequently occurring with particular collocations.
An example given by John Sinclair is the combination set in, which has a negative prosody: rot is a prime example for what is going to set in. Other well-known examples are cause, which is also mostly used in a negative context (accident, catastrophe, etc.), though one can also say that something "caused happiness". (Wikipedia)
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word clavicytherium
was actually a medieval keyboard instrument... but definitely a musical dinosaur :-D
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word lomography
or lomo - this is for the "flicksters" -: a trademark, as well as a new trend in the revival of analog photography with a touch of patina, where much is left to chance. the lomographer's motto is: "don't think, just shoot".
LOMO is the acronym for the russian firm Leningradskoe Optiko-Mechani�?eskoe Ob"edinenie, which produced a compact camera called LCA, rediscovered in recent years by the lomographers.
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word piango
italian for "i cry", " i weep"
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word picchio
and as a noun, it can mean "woodpecker" or "a frequent or continuous knocking"
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word spooning
sometimes they do, but always like synonyms: they can be very similar - or complement each other like synonym and antonym - but they never cover each other completely... and that's the exciting part :-))
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word spooning
(of two people) lie close together sideways and front to back with bent knees, so as to fit together like spoons.
September 1, 2008
elisheba commented on the word locuplete
i've just found out that the verb "to locuplete" was used by donald m. frame in his translation of rabelais's "gargantua and pantagruel" (oxford complete works of françois rabelais) in the sense "to enrich"
"signor missayre, my genius is not nately apt for what this flagitious nebulon says, to excoriate the cutucle of our gallic vernacule, but viceversally i fervidly operate, and by veles and rames applicate myself to LOCUPLETE it from the latinicome redundance" (p. 151)
August 3, 2008
elisheba commented on the word locuplete
as a transitive verb it has been used by umberto eco in italian (from the latin verb "locupletare"), meaning more or less to enrich, or to lavish with gifts, or to give abundantly.
August 3, 2008
elisheba commented on the user reesetee
thank you reesetee! :-)
August 3, 2008