I have translated many books from German into English. I am working on a project right now that has a rather odd word in it, which is one of those perfect words that very few people seem to know. The German word is "pendeln," which means to swing or sway back and forth as a pendulum. The correct English word is "pendulate," but it is so rarely used that it will very likely look wrong to the reader.

So, I'm looking for a really good substitute for "pendulate."

Vacillate is close, but it carries the baggage of hesitation with it. Fluctuate comes close, as does oscillate. However, none of these is really a perfect substitute for pendulate.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It would be really helpful to have a complete sentence to be sure suggestions would fit the context.

How about seesaw?

A really fine question. I suppose swing to and fro or shuttle won't do either. I see that pendeln is also used for commute. Maybe waffle or waver might do. Could you provide the context of the verb in German?

[Addendum: to yo-yo?]

I dunno; here's a recent citation that looks good to my eye, "The American electorate for some decades has pendulated between liberalism and conservatism." (read: swung, alternated, oscillated)

more examples

What's wrong with the good old simple one syllable non-technical term 'swing'? As in "the American electorate for some decades has swung between liberalism and conservatism."

>has swung between liberalism and conservatism

!!

-joe (mantled again) friday

Oscillate.
And welcome, Bill.

>oscillate

like I said, "usually"!

-joe (it's not unusual today) friday

Yeah, give us the sentence/context, Bill. I am a translator, too, and don't see what's wrong with swing, until I see the context.

Bill I think you're right, there isn't a good synonym, the closest I could cme is undulate

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/pendulate

oscillated And I'd thought I read your (and everybody's) post! Sorry about that.

undulate is more up and down rather than side to side like a pendulum isn't it?

I wonder if Mr. Palmer will come back?

*Ed. For ghost who palms...?

I wonder, is there a name for a thread that is started by someone who never comes back again yet continues unabated nevertheless...?

In some forums they're called drive-by posters.

I might coin imposter.

how's about postergeist?

Pook: No I believe it can also mean back-and-forth

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=undulate&r=66

Chuckle, grinnik.

I like postergeist.

Nevertheless, undulate always applies to a surface, never to the period of a pendulum or the results of social polling as 'swing' can. It means to ripple or roll or sway like a wheatfield in the breeze. Most often it is applied to the appearance of geography as you move through a series of rolling hills - 'undulating countryside'.

or snakes.

We ain' goin' nowhere wit'out no contex'.

Me too.


Me neither

Context, we don't need no steenkin context. We can post for pages widout no context.

True. True. Never been known to stop us.

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Postergeist is brilliant. My hand's up to adopt it.

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Depending upon who the translation is meant for, he can use "swing back and forth"; sometimes, it makes just as much sense to use a phrase as a word your reader won't understand.

thankee. all it takes is usin' it.

Well, we'll need a citation to sneak get it in to Urban Dictionary, so:

He asked the question, but will our postergeist ever make it back to see if there's an answer?

speaking of needing citations, check this out!

postergeist gets about 11k ghits, including this one - Phantom, which has some relevance, I think.

Whoa; that's kind of scary.