Re: Some comments to mark,l

[John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>]

la goran. cusku di'e

> > tin can (tinci, tin, no short
> > rafsi; lante, can, no short rafsi),
>
> Is "tin can" an idiom in English, or is it really important to impart to
> your listeners that the can in question is made from tin? Most of them
> are, anyway, so it is not much of an information. I have never yet been
> in a situation where I would have to explicate the material of a can, and
> if I ever am I would gladly use tanru.

You are of course correct.  No tin can is made of tin; most are tin-coated
steel.   About all you can say is that it isn't aluminum.  On that small
island off the coast of Europe, they talk of "tins", although I am told
that even there drinks come in cans.

> > high tide (ctaru, tide, no short
> > rafsi)
>
> Again, why bother with lujvo? English doesn't have one word, and English
> has the biggest vocabulary in the world, I think, or at least very close
> to that. Why in the world would you want one word for expressing high tide?
> By the way, high tide is not something I would use ctaru for at all:
> {lo xamsi sefta cu galtu}. ctaru describes the process of rising and
> falling of the level of the water, and I am unable to see how to get to
> the individual parts of that process using that word.

Good point.  BTW, to add to your English vocabulary, the highest high tide
of the month (coinciding with the full moon) is called "springs", and the
lowest low tide (coinciding with the new moon) is called "neaps".  I do
not think the word "neaps" is used for any other purpose.

>
> Another word I can't find Croatian equivalent for. How often do you use
> it? Could you give me a context for example?

There's an idiomatic phrase "We'll run it up the flagpole and see who
salutes" meaning "We'll make this idea available for public comment".
Also, there used to be a sport of flagpole sitting (to see how long someone
could remain at the top of a flagpole -- records were about 45 days!).

> Now, I don't know
> exactly what you mean by "eyebrow raising", but it would come out as {nu
> mebykre galgau} (as a facial expression) or {nu mebri xulgau} (as a
> surgical operation).

ROFL!  He means the former.  Idiomatically it suggests surprise, or sometimes
a small indication that one is going to overlook improper behavior on the
part of another person, but not without letting the other person know it.

--
John Cowan                                      cowan@ccil.org
                e'osai ko sarji la lojban.