General help with obscure english expressions, thread :)

[sophie]

But as in one nightmare or a recurrent one?

On that night

 

[tjs282]

I don't know what woes the baron is dreaming of, but 'were long be-nightmared" seems to me to refer to an experience had by his warrior-guests, rather than him: Keats seems to be using 'be-nightmared' in the same sense as 'be-devilled': i.e. as a passive, 'receiving' action, and 'shades and forms of...' in this context I would read as meaning 'ghosts/ visions/ apparitions of...' .

So I'd read that as his guests (also) having extended nightmares (about witches, demons and coffin-worms).

Maybe the Baron's giving off bad psychic vibes?

 

[Kyriakos]

Anyone knows what the (likely modern) expression "you could spit through it" means?
In context it is about a drawing one doesnt want to take with him but the others insist. I suppose the general meaning is that it is a petty object, worthy almost of being spat on?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Anyone knows what the (likely modern) expression "you could spit through it" means?
In context it is about a drawing one doesnt want to take with him but the others insist. I suppose the general meaning is that it is a petty object, worthy almost of being spat on?

Maybe it's a flimsy object?

(I don't know much about spitting through stuff)

 

[Takhisis]

Maybe you could provide the entire paragraph?

 

[Birdjaguar]

I've never heard that expression before. The full context would be helpful.

 

[Kyriakos]

I can't, given i dont know where it is from, so it might be by some very very recent work... It was in the style of "we give you some part to translate, so as to form an opinion of your skill" thing. I am pretty sure the book it is from is one of those modern mystery/crime ones.
that said, it was said about a " brown canvas".
Maybe it has stranger - more particular to the rather unstable- narrator meaning. but surely it couldnt just mean that the object is fragile, right? I mean a canvas is relatively sturdy painting-types-wise, no?

Sadly i was given no overall context of the story; just an opening part of less than 2000 words.

Anyway, i wanted to complete it in a day, so already sent it many hours ago. I think i did well, but who knows

 

[Kyriakos]

I have a new question

This is from a short story by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, "The Witch":

Opposite me sat a person in petticoats. She was of a sort I particularly detest. No real body of bones and muscles, but the contours of grouped sausages. Complacent, gaudily dressed, heavily wigged and ratted, with powder and perfume and flowers and jewels–and a dog.

1) "Heavily wigged and ratted" means that she is wearing a gaudy wig and has hair extensions? (the story was written in the start of the 20th century).
2) "contours of grouped sausages" just means that her body looked loose or in other ways similar to sausages sold as joined to each other? (ie the parallelism is to her joints as well?)

 

[Truthy]

1) "Heavily wigged and ratted" means that she is wearing a gaudy wig and has hair extensions? (the story was written in the start of the 20th century).

I've never heard the adjective "ratted." I guess it means something like these hairstyles or this.

2) "contours of grouped sausages" just means that her body looked loose or in other ways similar to sausages sold as joined to each other? (ie the parallelism is to her joints as well?)

She's saying the woman has lots of rolls of fat.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I have a new question

This is from a short story by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman, "The Witch":



1) "Heavily wigged and ratted" means that she is wearing a gaudy wig and has hair extensions? (the story was written in the start of the 20th century).
2) "contours of grouped sausages" just means that her body looked loose or in other ways similar to sausages sold as joined to each other? (ie the parallelism is to her joints as well?)

it means her *** is fat my man

 

[Takhisis]

‘Ratted’ could mean that her hair is tied into a (rat-)queue, but I don't know whether the expression was in use with that meaning at the time when it was written.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I would think that "ratted" with respect to her hair is meaning that it is messy and unkempt.

 

[Takhisis]

Hmmm yes, but I've seen ‘ratty’ used for that specific association with rats, rather than ‘ratted’. Of course, English is an unregulated language, which has its pros and its cons, so both might have been used interchangeably.

I decided to investigate. First I took a side-trip through Robert Hartwell-Fiske's bibliography, such as is available on my shelves, but there was no mention of ‘rats’ as such; I thought that ‘ratty’ with -y would mean ‘resembling a rat’ while ‘ratted’ would more probably mean ‘having a rat applied to it’ (just as ‘wigged’ means ‘with a wig on’ and ‘wiggy’ would mean her hair looks like a wig) so I visited chez Jimbo Wales.
I found a definition for ‘rat’ there: a wad of shed hair used as a hairstyle.
And then I went to Wikipedia's disambiguation page for ‘rat’ and found ‘a device for forming a hair bun’ as a definition listed under ‘other uses’.
So I'd say the evidence is heavily in favour of the woman in question having some sort of awful hairstyle, probably voluminous and artificial-looking. Much more than that I cannot say with a larger sample of the text; some writers always use reduplication as a means of getting away with being verbose, especially those paid by the word or page.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

So I'd say the evidence is heavily in favour of the woman in question having some sort of awful hairstyle, probably voluminous and artificial-looking.

You are on track. 'Ratted' was a style in the mid twentieth century that involved intentionally combing long hair 'against the grain.' Taking a handful of hair in a loose grip and running a comb (with very fine, short teeth) towards your head pushes most of the hair into a mass. Repeat until there's no long hair left to grab onto. Works on straight or barely wavy hair to produce a sort of frizzy mass. It was really bad for your hair and hard to recover from because the result if it were on a dog would be called mats and just get clipped off. Massive doses of detanglers and exhaustive efforts with a hair pick were required. The handle of a ratting comb was usually narrow and long and came to a point specifically so it could be used to undo the mess it had made.

 

[Takhisis]

Taking a handful of hair in a loose grip and running a comb (with very fine, short teeth) towards your head

Aaaaaargh my imagination cannot unsee it.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Aaaaaargh my imagination cannot unsee it.

Sorry man. My sister did it, for a while, so I feel your pain. I'll never forget it either.

FWIW a search for "ratting comb" led directly to a Youtube video titled "how to rat your hair."

 

[Kyriakos]

Hmmm yes, but I've seen ‘ratty’ used for that specific association with rats, rather than ‘ratted’. Of course, English is an unregulated language, which has its pros and its cons, so both might have been used interchangeably.

I decided to investigate. First I took a side-trip through Robert Hartwell-Fiske's bibliography, such as is available on my shelves, but there was no mention of ‘rats’ as such; I thought that ‘ratty’ with -y would mean ‘resembling a rat’ while ‘ratted’ would more probably mean ‘having a rat applied to it’ (just was ‘wigged’ means ‘with a wig on’ and ‘wiggy’ would mean her hair looks like a wig) so I visited chez Jimbo Wales.
I found a definition for ‘rat’ there: a wad of shed hair used as a hairstyle.
And then I went to Wikipedia's disambiguation page for ‘rat’ and found ‘a device for forming a hair bun’ as a definition listed under ‘other uses’.
So I'd say the evidence is heavily in favour of the woman in question having some sort of awful hairstyle, probably voluminous and artificial-looking. Much more than that I cannot say with a larger sample of the text; some writers always use reduplication as a means of getting away with being verbose, especially those paid by the word or page.

You are on track. 'Ratted' was a style in the mid twentieth century that involved intentionally combing long hair 'against the grain.' Taking a handful of hair in a loose grip and running a comb (with very fine, short teeth) towards your head pushes most of the hair into a mass. Repeat until there's no long hair left to grab onto. Works on straight or barely wavy hair to produce a sort of frizzy mass. It was really bad for your hair and hard to recover from because the result if it were on a dog would be called mats and just get clipped off. Massive doses of detanglers and exhaustive efforts with a hair pick were required. The handle of a ratting comb was usually narrow and long and came to a point specifically so it could be used to undo the mess it had made.

Thank you both, very useful!
So, would heavily "wigged" also refer to a style instead of using a wig? (cause given she is styling her own hair, I am not seeing how she would also be using a wig).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Thank you both, very useful!
So, would heavily "wigged" also refer to a style instead of using a wig? (cause given she is styling her own hair, I am not seeing how she would also be using a wig).

"Wigged" I have only seen used in two contexts. Revolutionary era USians had men of station wearing powdered wigs because, I guess, the mane of white fake hair created a distinguishing look that separated them from the common man, and they were often described as "wigged." The other context is with wig as a verb, as in "when I told my wife about my girlfriend she completely wigged."

 

[Zkribbler]

Revolutionary era USians had men of station wearing powdered wigs because, I guess, the mane of white fake hair created a distinguishing look

...or because it replaced the hair they shaved off to get rid of head lice.

 

[Kyriakos]

From the rogue Irish novel I am trying to translate:

"the dog has a
rogue tongue, conspiratorial eyes."

Does this just mean the dog's tongue keeps moving all the time, like some vagabond or rogue? Or is the connotation more about character?