Word of the Day

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Desclassificar.

Segundo documentos ontem desclassificados pelos Arquivos Nacionais britânicos,

Nunca tinha visto desclassificados à inglesa. À portuguesa teríamos, por exemplo, divulgados.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Delíriá tremens

Rašo má dnes 40 rokov, je v invalidnom dôchodku, má cukrovku, cirhózu pečene, zničený organizmus, alkoholický demenciu a za sebou už tri delíriá tremens.

Rašo is 40 years old, on a disability pension, has diabetes, hepatic cirrhosis, a wrecked organism, alcohol-related dementia and has had three "deliriums tremens"

There delíria is in the Slovak plural, followed by tremens, left in the singular, at least as far as Latin grammar is concerned. If you were to apply Latin grammar to the whole phrase, you would get deliria trementia. Since the word delírium is used in Slovak and treated as a Slovak word, the same could happen to tremens, which would then give us delíriá tremensy. Just kidding, I think that formulation is good enough (or not?). Or then maybe: tri záchvaty (bouts) delíria tremens.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Skyscrapers

There are languages with skyscrapers: Portuguese arranha-céu(s), Spanish rascacielos, Italian grattacielo, French gratte-ciel, Bulgarian небостъргач (nebostrugach), Russian небоскрёб (neboskryob), Croatian neboder, Slovenian nebotičnik; others have cloudscrapers: Czech/Slovak mrakodrap, Macedonian oблакодер (oblakoder), German Wolkenkratzer, Dutch wolkenkrabber, Romanian zgârie-nori, Finnish pilvenpiirtäjä. Danish skyskraber and Swedish skykrappa look very much like skycrapers, but sky in these languages means cloud, not sky. Here for the etymology of the word sky in English.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Corns

There are languages in which corns (on the skin) or fish eyes are referred to as chicken eyes, like Czech kuří oko, Slovak kurie oko, German Hühnerauge, and Japanese 鶏眼 (keigan). In others, it's fish eyes, like Portuguese olho de peixe, Spanish ojo de pescado, and French œil de poisson. Italian has also opted for a bird, but is more specific: it is occhio di pernice, partridge eye.