I encountered the term, "Englishing", which I liked right away, and which seems to indicate a "pretentious English translation" (see the citation about Rilke in the cited article). It was used in an essay about using the Google translator for non-English poetic translations (an interesting read in itself) in the following link from the cyber-journal Exquisite Corpse (3rd paragraph, last sentence to view it in context):

http://corpse.org/issue_11/poesy/google.html

Any thoughts? reactions?

Back in the 19th century, there was a movement to "purify" English from its foreign (mainly Romance language)accretions. The name Burrow comes to mind, but I forget who he was exactly. I believe it was all tied in with Pre-Raphaelitism and all that. Rhuby will be able to give us more specific details no doubt. Anyway, these people used "to English" instead of "to translate", translate being a beastly foreign import.

Bingley

Not sure what to make of the term in the context of the Exquisite Corpse article. I've always taken English as a verb to refer to an incompetent translation into English by a non-native speaker.

Bingley, seems we could do better than english for a "pure" Niw Englisc word for translate; something like oferbér.

This a totally WordWind-like off-thread, but.

I used to enjoy playing Exquisite Corpse and still look for players. You need at least 3, maybe 6 max. Any of you familiar with this Dada-originated story-telling game?

Putting a little english on the thread.

Spin put on a ball, usually but not always a billiard ball, is called "english" (always lower case). The British call the same effect "side," because it is accomplished by striking the ball slightly off-centre, thus imparting the spin.

The actions that the player makes to cause the ball to spin -- the extra gestures, physical effort and "oomph", we know as "body English" because such physical gestures (waving your hands, hopping up and down, etc.) are sometimes used to boost the expressive effect of our spoken English.

Actual English people, of course, are possibly the least likely people on Earth to employ "body English" while speaking, but that's another story.

The above is approximately taken from Word Detective.

I've always taken body English to mean bodily gyrations attempting to affect the path of, usually, a ball after it has left the control of the person. Examples would be a bowler (not the cricket type, but one attempting to knock down bowling pins) trying to get the ball to curve into the pins just right or a baseball player trying to get his long fly ball to stay on the fair side of the foul pole.

Dare I ask what a baseball player's long fly ball is? Have I been missing out on something by steadfastly ignoring the game all these years?

Bingley

If the ball is hit a long distance way up in the air, it's a long fly ball. If it's hit out toward center field it's liable to be caught by the center fielder since the center field fence is farther away from home plate than the right and left field fences are. Also, a ball hit to far right or far left field will tend to curve towards foul territory. Thus a ball can appear to be going fair only to pass into foul territory before going over the fence. Good command of body english can hold the ball fair.

If 'english' is used as a verb meaning 'to put into English", it's not unique. 'Verdeutscht' means 'to translate into German.

pity i can't englishing from polish it would be fun :)))