Is there a "babelfish" for Latin?

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#6634 - 09/27/00 02:09 PM Re: Is there a "babelfish" for Latin? Addendum
Joined: Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 TEd Remington Carpal Tunnel
TEd Remington Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 Marion NC	>Having not taken any Latin, but living in a generation where one's peers thrive on unconspicuously crude jokes and quotes, I'm guessing that 'mingit' means urinate. And your guess would be exactly right. Something about the Latin verb mingo rang a tiny bell in the back of my mind. In it's major parts it is mingo, mingere, micti, mictus, I suspect, an etymological echo of the verb fingo, fingere, ficti, fictus, which is the one I do remember from my two years of Latin MANY years ago. (Fingere means to form.) I looked up micturate, which means urinate, and the dictionary obligingly reported that the word comes from micturire, to want to urinate, from mingere, to urinate. TEd

#6635 - 09/27/00 02:56 PM Re: Is there a "babelfish" for Latin? Addendum
Joined: Aug 2000 Posts: 2,204 RhubarbCommando Pooh-Bah
RhubarbCommando Pooh-Bah Joined: Aug 2000 Posts: 2,204	micturate, which means urinate I have for many years wondered if "micturate" is the word that is shortened in "Taking the Mick" - not least because of the less polite form in which that sentiment is sometimes expressed. or am I micturating up the wrong tree?

#6636 - 09/27/00 03:30 PM Taking the Mick???
Joined: Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 TEd Remington Carpal Tunnel
TEd Remington Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jul 2000 Posts: 3,467 Marion NC	What, pray tell, is "taking the Mick?" TEd

#6637 - 09/27/00 07:45 PM Re: Taking the Mick???
Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 1,981 jmh Pooh-Bah
jmh Pooh-Bah Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 1,981	Taking the mickey = poking fun, often Irish sometimes referred to as "extracting the Michael" never known who Michael was though!

#6638 - 09/27/00 07:57 PM Re: Is there a "babelfish" for Latin?
Joined: Aug 2000 Posts: 3,409 Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel
Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2000 Posts: 3,409	contrafibularities Sorry! That word is a reference to a very funny episode of the British comedy series "Blackadder." The episode involves Dr. Samuel Johnson and his dictionary. There is a scene in which Johnson boasts that his dictionary includes every word in the English language. Blackadder extends his "contrafibularities" as part of a ninety second monologue full of made up words - it's very funny, at least I found it to be so.

#6639 - 09/27/00 08:22 PM Re: Is there a "babelfish" for Latin?
Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,538 tsuwm Carpal Tunnel
tsuwm Carpal Tunnel Joined: Apr 2000 Posts: 10,538 this too shall pass	EBlackadder: "Contrafibularities, sir. It is a common word down our way." SJohnson: "Damn!" EB: "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm anaspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericumbobulation." . . EB: "Of course, sir. I shall return...interfrastically." . . KingGeorge : "Look, Doctor Johnson, I may be as thick as a whale omelette, but even I know a book's got to have a plot."

#6640 - 09/27/00 08:35 PM Re: Is there a "babelfish" for Latin?
Joined: Aug 2000 Posts: 3,409 Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel
Max Quordlepleen Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2000 Posts: 3,409	You are a prince! Thanks for that, I shall dig up my old tapes now and watch it again. One of my favourites was the definition offered for the letter "C": "Big blue wobbly thing what mermaids live in."

#6641 - 09/27/00 08:37 PM Re: Taking the Mick...and micturate
Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 347 Marty enthusiast
Marty enthusiast Joined: Sep 2000 Posts: 347 Melbourne, Australia	Certainly in Australia, "taking the piss" is a well-known expression, although Olympic drug-testing officialdom has imparted a more literal meaning to the phrase.

#6642 - 09/27/00 11:55 PM Re: Is there a "babelfish" for Latin?
Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel
AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York	Looks like Max has still to find a "babelfish" for Latin.... sic transit gloria ciber(sic)-mundi

#6643 - 09/28/00 04:08 PM Re: Is there a "babelfish" for Latin?
Joined: Jun 2000 Posts: 444 Bridget addict
Bridget addict Joined: Jun 2000 Posts: 444 Sydney Australia	>the definition offered for the letter "C": "Big blue wobbly thing what mermaids live in." < Moving the subject on again entirely, can anyone assist me with the missing parts of the following alphabet. I never knew and my father has forgotten... 'Ay for 'orses Beef or mutton Sea for ships Dee for salmon 'Eave a brick Effervescent G? H? Ivor Novello J? K? 'Ell for leather Emphasis N? Over the Rainbow P? Queue for buses 'Arf a mo Esther Rantzen Tea for two You for me V? Double you for quits X? Wife o' mine Z?

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