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In Petro Tyschtschenko's book, he states "We obviously couldn't use the name VIC in Germany, so it ended up being the VC-20 in the German market, with Germans calling it the Volkscomputer." Why couldn't they use the name "VIC"? Does it sound dirty? The only possible connection I can imagine is that it sounds a bit like "ficken", which means "to fuck" in German. JIP | Talk 06:17, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
@JIP: So you're aware that, in German, the letter v is pronounced /f/ ? VIC doesn't just sound "a little like" fick; it sounds exactly like it. At least I think it does — my German is not exactly wunderbar, but I think I know enough to make that statement. -- Trovatore ( talk) 19:10, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
In the book Falling Upwards, Richard Holmes talks at some length about Félix Nadar, a 19th-century balloonist (among other things) with a strong flair for self-promotion. Nadar's balloon Le Géant was one of the largest ever built and carried a gondola with an open upper deck and a fully enclosed lower deck, as seen in this poster. Holmes uses the poster as an illustration in the book, but does not provide an explanatory caption, and I'm curious about some of the French wording.
First, quadrille isn't in my French-English dictionary, only quadrillage and quadrillé, referring to things that are checkered or ruled into squares. But I remember that Lewis Carroll used the word in English to refer to a dance, and I'm guessing that's the meaning here in French. Second, chardon does not seem to be the name of a person connected with the balloon, but is in the dictionary with the meaning "thistle". So should the words on that part of the poster be read horizontally—saying that a dance will be held aboard the "thistle balloon", a term referring somehow to its appearance? Or is some other reading correct?
Next, I take the règlement de bord that Nadar will be providing to basically mean that he'll be running things on board; but what's légende doing together with that? In my dictionary the word simply means "legend", both in the mapmaking sense and the myth sense. Is Nadar saying he'll be a guide in the same sense that the legend of a map is a guide to how to use the map, or what?
Finally, the price seems to be 4.50 francs à deux et à quatre mains. "Two and four hands": is that a common way of saying that a couple will be admitted for the same price as a single person?
65.94.51.64 ( talk) 08:51, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
My goodness, ballooning music! Thanks, folks, I never thought of that. In particular, the part about règlement de bord (as well as the book context of actual ascensions) seemed to make it clear that this was advertising an activity. Can anyone suggest what that line of the thing actually means? -- 65.94.51.64 ( talk) 03:21, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
When I finished reading the book, I was surprised to find an additional confirmation of the answer given by Colin and Sluzzelin. It turns out that the reason there wasn't a caption on the illustration was that the captions for this and all other illustrations are located at the back of the book. That's downright weird, especially considering that the book was carefully produced with bibliographic notes at the end while discursive footnotes went on the same page as the related text. I wonder if someone intended the same sort of separation between captions and credits for the illustrations, but got it wrong and the captions ended up where the credits were supposed to be.
Be that as it may, the caption (and credit) hiding on page 363 for the illustration on page 168 reads: "'Le Géant de NADAR: quadrille aérostatique... par Chardon'. Sheet music for 'An Airborne Quadrille', piano piece for two or four hands, with words, music and arrangement by Chardon. © Bibliothèque National, Paris". Et alors, c'est ça. -- 65.94.51.64 ( talk) 09:29, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
Could someone take a look at the first three entries in the Moira dab page and do something with them, like merging them with an all encompassing definition perhaps? They all link to the same article! Clarityfiend ( talk) 11:03, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
Why do people refer to tuna as "tunafish"? I have never heard anyone say " salmonfish" or " troutfish", for example. → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 17:27, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
We used ink-pen to mean a pen you dipped in ink as opposed to a fountain pen. Hotclaws ( talk) 13:50, 23 September 2014 (UTC)
Hi, in the Rise Against article we read:
I know "get carried away" means "to be under the influence of something", in this case "melodic urgency" of the album. But the whole sentence does not make sense to me. Would someone tell what does "urgency" mean here and how it has influence on the album? 2.179.241.47 ( talk) 18:59, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
Language desk | ||
---|---|---|
< September 20 | << Aug | September | Oct >> | September 22 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
In Petro Tyschtschenko's book, he states "We obviously couldn't use the name VIC in Germany, so it ended up being the VC-20 in the German market, with Germans calling it the Volkscomputer." Why couldn't they use the name "VIC"? Does it sound dirty? The only possible connection I can imagine is that it sounds a bit like "ficken", which means "to fuck" in German. JIP | Talk 06:17, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
@JIP: So you're aware that, in German, the letter v is pronounced /f/ ? VIC doesn't just sound "a little like" fick; it sounds exactly like it. At least I think it does — my German is not exactly wunderbar, but I think I know enough to make that statement. -- Trovatore ( talk) 19:10, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
In the book Falling Upwards, Richard Holmes talks at some length about Félix Nadar, a 19th-century balloonist (among other things) with a strong flair for self-promotion. Nadar's balloon Le Géant was one of the largest ever built and carried a gondola with an open upper deck and a fully enclosed lower deck, as seen in this poster. Holmes uses the poster as an illustration in the book, but does not provide an explanatory caption, and I'm curious about some of the French wording.
First, quadrille isn't in my French-English dictionary, only quadrillage and quadrillé, referring to things that are checkered or ruled into squares. But I remember that Lewis Carroll used the word in English to refer to a dance, and I'm guessing that's the meaning here in French. Second, chardon does not seem to be the name of a person connected with the balloon, but is in the dictionary with the meaning "thistle". So should the words on that part of the poster be read horizontally—saying that a dance will be held aboard the "thistle balloon", a term referring somehow to its appearance? Or is some other reading correct?
Next, I take the règlement de bord that Nadar will be providing to basically mean that he'll be running things on board; but what's légende doing together with that? In my dictionary the word simply means "legend", both in the mapmaking sense and the myth sense. Is Nadar saying he'll be a guide in the same sense that the legend of a map is a guide to how to use the map, or what?
Finally, the price seems to be 4.50 francs à deux et à quatre mains. "Two and four hands": is that a common way of saying that a couple will be admitted for the same price as a single person?
65.94.51.64 ( talk) 08:51, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
My goodness, ballooning music! Thanks, folks, I never thought of that. In particular, the part about règlement de bord (as well as the book context of actual ascensions) seemed to make it clear that this was advertising an activity. Can anyone suggest what that line of the thing actually means? -- 65.94.51.64 ( talk) 03:21, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
When I finished reading the book, I was surprised to find an additional confirmation of the answer given by Colin and Sluzzelin. It turns out that the reason there wasn't a caption on the illustration was that the captions for this and all other illustrations are located at the back of the book. That's downright weird, especially considering that the book was carefully produced with bibliographic notes at the end while discursive footnotes went on the same page as the related text. I wonder if someone intended the same sort of separation between captions and credits for the illustrations, but got it wrong and the captions ended up where the credits were supposed to be.
Be that as it may, the caption (and credit) hiding on page 363 for the illustration on page 168 reads: "'Le Géant de NADAR: quadrille aérostatique... par Chardon'. Sheet music for 'An Airborne Quadrille', piano piece for two or four hands, with words, music and arrangement by Chardon. © Bibliothèque National, Paris". Et alors, c'est ça. -- 65.94.51.64 ( talk) 09:29, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
Could someone take a look at the first three entries in the Moira dab page and do something with them, like merging them with an all encompassing definition perhaps? They all link to the same article! Clarityfiend ( talk) 11:03, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
Why do people refer to tuna as "tunafish"? I have never heard anyone say " salmonfish" or " troutfish", for example. → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 17:27, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
We used ink-pen to mean a pen you dipped in ink as opposed to a fountain pen. Hotclaws ( talk) 13:50, 23 September 2014 (UTC)
Hi, in the Rise Against article we read:
I know "get carried away" means "to be under the influence of something", in this case "melodic urgency" of the album. But the whole sentence does not make sense to me. Would someone tell what does "urgency" mean here and how it has influence on the album? 2.179.241.47 ( talk) 18:59, 21 September 2014 (UTC)