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Dave Wilton of WordOrigins.org is now writing for Examiner.com and has an article about the mistake of thinking that if a single word for a concept doesn't exist in the dictionary you have at hand, then that concept cannot be important--and the mistake of not properly doing your research. Sex columnist Dan Savage also has a swipe about the same article from the New York Times that provoked Dave.
By the way, a variant of a the term for a female who has been sexually betrayed is "cotquean," defined in its second sense in the 1913 Webster's Unabridged as "a she-cuckold; a cucquean; a henhussy." Note also the k-less spelling of "cucquean."
Geoffry Hughes, in his "Encylopedia of Swearing," says of "cuckquean," that "to satisfy her husband's fantasies, the innocent wife is forced to impersonate other lovers, thereby cuckolding herself," which puts the blame squarely back on the man. But Dave's and Dan's points still hold: absence of precise one-word vocabulary for an act does not mean that act does not occur. We describe many common acts in phrases or sentences: "go to the bathroom," for example.
For what it's worth, another synonym for "cuckold" is "wittol," "a man who knows his wife's infidelity and submits to it; a tame cuckold; -- so called because the cuckoo lays its eggs in the wittol's nest."
Very interesting. Until now, I didn't realize the significant difference between a cuckold and a wittol (because I had never looked them up, thinking they were synonyms).
The book written by Dave Wilton, Word Myths, looks like fun. I think I will get it, even though it will probably debunk some of my favorite myths.
In the newsgroup alt.usage.english, we're in the throes of one of our periodic discussions of a concept that's not easy to describe in English. It usually begins with an EFL student asking what one's place is in the family's sequential birth order. They want to know if there's a "question word" they can use, like:
"Whichth child are you?"
The same topic has also been brought up in connection with US presidents. Someone preparing a quiz wants to say something like "George Washington was the first president. Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth. Which president was Theodore Roosevelt?" Then they try to delete the first two sentences and wonder why they get answers like "the one with the glasses and mustache".
It's hard to explain to someone without multi-language experience that the mapping of concepts is not one-to-one. Japanese has different single words for "older brother" and "younger brother"; English doesn't. In the other direction, Russian uses the same word for both "peace" and "the world" and English-speakers wonder why they don't get confused.
As for the question of presidential order, without the analogies, you could clarify your intent for “which†by specifying:
In ordinal sequence, which … ?
Which number represents the presidency of … ?
As you know well, the hurdle for such ESL students is not that English can't express a concept, but that it might take more words than the native tongue, or English might require them to isolate one nuance from many, or that the cultural context does not carry over in translation. (You may consistently translate “older brother,†but Americans might well not grasp the cultural family dynamic that birth order implies in Japan. This could easily still be the case even if English DID have a single word for “older brother.â€) Of course, this travels both ways. As you point out, it is a universal plight of translation, both into and from any language.
Direct translation results in the common ESL dialects we often hear: Charlie Chan and his “number one son;†Russian overuse of “this†as in “What was this sound?†(English prefers “that†for unmarked reference, whereas Russian favors the equivalent of “thisâ€.). Of course, Chinese hear Americans constantly use the wrong version of “thank you†or “excuse me.†And French hear us use the wrong “yes†in response to negative questions.
These things are really quite delightful, aren't they?
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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