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Author Topic: What do they call . . .  (Read 8366 times)

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Offline Tante Shvester

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What do they call . . .
« on: July 25, 2011, 08:18:11 AM »
For all you folk who speak other languages, answer me these:

What do you call goosebumps?

What do you call a fly swatter?

Do you have a word for that little indentation in the spot between your upper lip and your nose?  (I'm amazed that English doesn't have a common word for something that is smack dab in the middle of your face.  We do have an uncommon word -- philtrum-- but it's, um, not that common.  It will score you big points in Scrabble, though.)
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Offline Marianne Dashwood

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2011, 11:00:48 AM »
In Japanese, goosebups are 鳥肌 - "bird skin." A fly swatter is a "ハエ叩き"- a "fly hitter." Sorry those are not so interesting. Pretty sure they don't have a common word for the philtrum. I looked it up in the dictionary and they said it's just called "under the nose."
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Offline Marianne Dashwood

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2011, 11:02:32 AM »
Oh, and I had to look it up in French but it reminded me that I had heard it before - chair de poule, or chicken flesh. And flyswatter is tapette à mouches - a hitter for flies. Sorry the world's vocabulary isn't more exciting.
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Offline Marianne Dashwood

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2011, 11:05:34 AM »
Oh! Looks like the French have a more common word for philtrum. It's l'arc de Cupidon, or "Cupid's bow." Kind of cute.
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Offline Porter

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2011, 11:09:28 AM »
In Portuguese, it's mata mosca or fly hitter.

For goosebumps, the word is arrepio, which also means shivers or creeps.
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Offline Porter

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2011, 11:10:08 AM »
Quote
It's l'arc de Cupidon, or "Cupid's bow." Kind of cute.
"Cupid's bow" is what I've always heard it called in English.
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Offline rivka

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2011, 11:12:12 AM »
So have I, although it's mildly obsolete.
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2011, 08:33:19 PM »
I don't know why there should be a common word for it in English (more common than "Cupid's bow" or "philtrum", that is)—it's not something commonly talked about, is it?
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Offline rivka

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2011, 09:15:46 PM »
Maybe it used to be. Historical novels and novels written 50-150 years ago are the main place I'm accustomed to seeing "cupid's bow" -- but in those, it comes up with some frequency.
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Offline Porter

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2011, 09:23:56 PM »
*ahem*.  Historical novels, eh?
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Offline rivka

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2011, 09:39:03 PM »
:P Yes.

Some are historical romance, but not all are. And the ones written 50-150 definitely aren't.
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Offline rivka

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2011, 09:52:20 PM »
Google Books implies that "cupid's bow" as a phrase referring to a bit of the face is commonly used in two fields:
  • plastic surgery
  • makeup artist
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Offline Tante Shvester

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2011, 10:32:17 PM »
Maybe people don't talk about it because they don't have a good word for it.  But then again, English doesn't have a word for mother-in-law, and we talk about that all the time.
Fighting thread drift with guilt, reverse psychology, and chicken soup.
Sweet! Law of Moses loopholes! -- Anneke
I love Bones.  -- Sweet Clementine
She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -- anonymous

Offline rivka

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #13 on: July 25, 2011, 11:04:12 PM »
Compound words are still words.
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Offline Jonathon

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #14 on: July 25, 2011, 11:07:57 PM »
Yup. And people don't generally let the lack of a word or phrase stop them from talking about things they want to talk about. They find ways to talk about them anyway, whether it's circumlocution or coining new words.
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Offline Amilia

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2011, 11:12:50 PM »
That's what a Cupid's Bow is?  Huh.  I thought it meant you had lips like a silent movie actress.  Although I guess it would be that little dent thing that gives the lips that shape.

-----

Upon searching for photos of what I was thinking of, it seems I must have mixed Cupid's Bow with Clara Bow.


Offline Porter

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #16 on: July 25, 2011, 11:17:48 PM »
Quote
Maybe people don't talk about it because they don't have a good word for it.
Nope.  People don't talk about it because they don't have anything to say about it.
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Offline rivka

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #17 on: July 25, 2011, 11:26:50 PM »
Upon searching for photos of what I was thinking of, it seems I must have mixed Cupid's Bow with Clara Bow.
:D

That's awesome.
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Offline pooka

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #18 on: July 26, 2011, 06:50:06 AM »
A feature that is very prized in a certain era will eventually become something only older people talk about.  So being "tight" will someday be regarded as we regard "groovy".  Unless groovy is back in and I didn't get the memo.  And now that tight has filtered down to my level people have probably stopped using it.
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Offline Marianne Dashwood

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #19 on: July 26, 2011, 08:21:13 AM »
I don't buy the idea of "untranslatable" words. Just because it takes a paragraph to explain saudades in English doesn't mean it's untranslatable. It means we use a paragraph to translate it.
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Offline Porter

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #20 on: July 26, 2011, 08:28:21 AM »
Depending on the context, that's functionally indistinguishable from untranslatable.
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Offline The Genuine

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #21 on: July 26, 2011, 12:19:51 PM »
I thought a Cupid's Bow was the shape of the upper lip, not the groove running perpendicular to it.
I think Jesse's right.

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Offline Jonathon

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #22 on: July 26, 2011, 12:21:38 PM »
I think Jesse's right.

link
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Offline The Genuine

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #23 on: July 26, 2011, 12:23:06 PM »
That's a sig if I ever saw one.
I think Jesse's right.

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Offline The Genuine

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Re: What do they call . . .
« Reply #24 on: July 26, 2011, 01:04:41 PM »
Gurl (native Peruvian) says that goosebumps might be escalo frio (really, "chills"), flyswatter is mata mosca, and that philtrum might begin with a P, and she's also working on the Quechua word for it.
I think Jesse's right.

 -- Jonathon