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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Sorry, Jackie, I couldn't find one for 'gutters'
curb your glut of gutters
-ron obvious
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 200
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 200 |
Annastrophic,
you take a day off and look what happens!
i meant a ponce to be someone who, similar to what tsuwm said, is affecting an upper class style and knowledge, usually in a way that separates them from the "great unwashed".
i remember asking for a record of prokofiev's "visions fugitives" when i was 16. the guy in the shop said "oh! you mean 'veeseeong fyujiteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeef?" this man was, and no doubt still is, a ponce.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
william, I'm laughing as I type.  Thanks for that very vivid definition of the "other" meaning of ponce. Now, if I could just come up with a synonym for it in American....I'm sure one of my compatriots will come to the rescue.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 31
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 31 |
How is a ponce different from a parvenu (one of my favorite words that is enhanced with more meaning each day)?
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
parvenu carries with it the nuance of being newly rich or powerful ( nouveau riche), and we have 'parvenue' for a woman who is a parvenu. 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315 |
I have seen in Awad the Italian word "omerta" written in this way. I wanted just to add a comment about the fact that the American keyboard force us to avoid the accents - not just Italian people, I received e-mails in French , also missing the correct accents.
But omerta needs strongly an accent on the last "a", so that we supply with an apostrophe: omerta'.
Otherwise we would pronounce it as omErta - with the tonic accent on the e.
How do you pronounce it?
Ciao
Emanuela
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Grazie, emanuela, for that information. Indeed, a posthumous book by Mario Puzo (of "Godfather" fame) was recently released. Its title is "Omerta," without the accent on the a. I had no idea how to pronounce it until I read your post.
n.b.: diacriticals are easy on Mac keyboards. Omertá
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>>the "other" meaning of ponce...a synonym for it in American....
How about social climber? Slang would be a wanna-be.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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>a synonym for the other meaning of ponce
[snob] snoot
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Those suggestions don't convery the "effete" quality of ponce, if I've understood the term correctly.... hmmm... perhaps we don't have a true equivalent in American, and haven't borrowed "ponce", because there's no need
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