Author Topic: What do they call . . . (Read 8235 times)

Tante Shvester · « **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.)

Marianne Dashwood · « **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."

Marianne Dashwood · « **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.

Marianne Dashwood · « **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.

Porter · « **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.

Porter · « **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.

rivka · « **Reply #6 on:** July 25, 2011, 11:12:12 AM »

So have I, although it's mildly obsolete.

Jonathon · « **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?

rivka · « **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.

Porter · « **Reply #9 on:** July 25, 2011, 09:23:56 PM »

*ahem*. Historical novels, eh?

rivka · « **Reply #10 on:** July 25, 2011, 09:39:03 PM »

Yes.

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

rivka · « **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

Tante Shvester · « **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.

rivka · « **Reply #13 on:** July 25, 2011, 11:04:12 PM »

Compound words are still words.

Jonathon · « **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.

Amilia · « **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.

Porter · « **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.

rivka · « **Reply #17 on:** July 25, 2011, 11:26:50 PM »

Quote from: Amilia on July 25, 2011, 11:12:50 PM

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

That's awesome.

pooka · « **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.

Marianne Dashwood · « **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.

Porter · « **Reply #20 on:** July 26, 2011, 08:28:21 AM »

Depending on the context, that's functionally indistinguishable from untranslatable.

The Genuine · « **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.

Jonathon · « **Reply #22 on:** July 26, 2011, 12:21:38 PM »

I think Jesse's right.

link

The Genuine · « **Reply #23 on:** July 26, 2011, 12:23:06 PM »

That's a sig if I ever saw one.

The Genuine · « **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.