Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 August 12

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August 12

Camarista Vespertina

I'm in Mexico, at the moment, with only a cursory knowledge of Spanish, and the maid at the hotel has left me a note. It says, "Camarista vespertina." It is followed by "Noemie" (her name) and a smiley face. She left it when she came in to do turndown service.

Any help? Thanks! Deltopia 02:52, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Apparently there are two chambermaids, one for the morning and one for the evening. Camarista vespertina means: "evening chambermaid".  --Lambiam 05:50, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Ladies and germs

Why was this ever funny? It doesn't even make sense other than that "Gentlemen" and "Germs" both start with g... --froth^t 04:13, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm assuming you're using MASH as your reference here, correct? It's just another Groucho Marx-esque non sequitur, a bit (a tiny bit) of surreal humor. +ILike2BeAnonymous 04:22, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

o_o yes I became curious after watching an episode of mash and being stymied by the expression... but I've heard it in dozens of places other than that; it's by no means exclusive to that show. So it doesn't mean anything? It really just is a random word thrown in because it starts with a G? The laugh track kicked in when he said it in mash, so I figured it must have had some significance to the people of the 70s that's been lost --froth^t 04:47, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it had any particular significance to the time period of the 70's. It was a good joke ... and a funny, witty phrase ... but only the first 800 times that you heard it. As with anything that is 30-40 years old, the humor gets stale. But it certainly was funny / witty in its day. Good for a laugh. Aside from the alliteration of the "g" sound, I also thought that the word "germs" was intended to be derogatory / poking fun at males. In the sense of ... a stand up comedian saying to his audience: "Hello, ladies and germs" ... meaning, "Hey, there's all these pretty ladies out here in the audience ... and why are they with all these schleps and loser guys?" That's how I always took it, at least. (Joseph A. Spadaro 05:09, 12 August 2007 (UTC))

Part of the understood shtick of standup comics, as in resorts in the Borscht Belt of the Catskills in the 1950's/1960's. "Good evening ladies and germs. I just flew in from Los Angeles. Boy are my arms tired (drummer gives rimshot on snare drum, audience laughs/groans). "Take my wife---Please!" "My doctor said I was in terrible shape. I told him, 'I want a second opinion.' He said, 'All right, you're ugly too!'" "I told my doctor, 'This morning when I got up and saw myself in the mirror, I looked awful! What's wrong with me?' He replied, 'I don't know, but your eyesight is perfect!'" "My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met." "My wife drowned in the pool because she was wearing so much jewelry." "My wife ain't too bright. One day our car got stolen. I said to her, 'Did you get a look at the guy?' She said, 'No, but I got the license number.' " Noted examples are Rodney Dangerfield , Don Rickles , and Henny Youngman. Edison 04:20, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Edison 04:20, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

"There goes..."

What does "There goes..." (the neighborhood, the daylight, our salvage...) exactly mean? Does it mean the object to be lost or destroyed? If so, is there a difference to "So much for..."? Can "There goes" used be as a synonym for "There we go"? --Thick Peter 13:50, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it usually means something is lost or destroyed, although in my mind it always sounds sarcastic. "So much for..." can mean that too, but it can also mean "I am finished with this topic and I am moving on to something else". "There we go" is more of an exclamation when something works properly. If you couldn't get your computer to work, and then finally you fixed it, you might exclaim "there we go!" Adam Bishop 15:45, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

"There goes the neighborhood"= "The neighborhood is ruined." Edison 04:10, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Here you go

This has been puzzling me. When giving something to someone, it is common to say "Here you go" or "Here you are". But why? I can understand "Here it goes" or "Here you have it" or "Here it is", but not "Here you go". My only theory is that "here" originally referred to a pitcher of wine or something with a spout to which one must "go" with a cup to receive the beverage, and was later generalized to any act of giving or dispensation. But that's just a guess. Does anyone know more? Bhumiya (said/done) 15:50, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I believe it is a form of "here I go" meaning "I'm about to do something". "Here you go" would then mean "You're about to do something", with the added "with this thing I have just given you". HYENASTE 16:47, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Identify accent

What accent does the cat have in this flash: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Cat+Face+2/ ? I've heard it before, but I've never been able to identify it. HYENASTE 16:47, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like weebl's trademark ridiculous british english accent trying to sound vaguely german --froth^t 16:58, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't sound remotely like German, or even at attempt at German, to me. I'd have said it's an attempt to sound vaguely West Indian. —Angr 17:54, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

At the start I thought it was vaguely French, but then it seemed to veer towards something generically Scandinavian... SaundersW 21:46, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Not like any Scandinavian accent I'm familiar with. I thought I heard elements of fake French accent and fake German accent but I'm not sure. Haukur 00:05, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I heard both some German and some Scandinavian in there Nil Einne 02:12, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I definitely heard german... --froth^t 00:45, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I only can tell you that a real German would not have such an accent, but I'm not an expert for German accents in English movies. --Thick Peter 12:38, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm talking about when cat face is saying "pet my face. yess yes that's right" --froth^t 20:21, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

To a U.S. English speaker who has travelled in the U.K., the cat sounds like the accent is supposed to be from India or Pakistan. Not even remotely a little bit German. Edison 04:09, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Discrimination definition

Hello, I would like to know what are the different types of discrimination and on what discrimination applies.

Can you discriminate food? Can you discriminate objects?

Does discrimination only apply to people?

There are multiple meanings for discrimination. For instance, it is usually considered good to have discriminating taste, but bad to treat others "based on class or category rather than individual merit." 152.16.188.107 00:02, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

And if you did, the adjective would be different: your bad behavior would be discriminatory. --Anonymous, August 13, 22:41 (UTC).

Discriminate basically means tell apart or treat differently. I just attended a talk on neural networks for signal recognition, and the whole idea was to "descriminate" real signals from false alarms as well as possible. —Keenan Pepper 00:55, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

In scientific circles, the word 'discriminate' is generally used as 'discriminate between', or 'tell apart', as Keenan pointed out. In everyday life it is generally used in the sense of 'discriminate against', as a prejudice. So in the later sense it is used only for people, and in the former it can be used for anything. Including humans. An anthropologist would have to be able to discriminate between Africans and Asians. Which is not the same as discriminating them (in the 'street-use' of the word). DirkvdM 06:16, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

DirkvdM, I think you left out "against" in your last sentence, which should be "Which is not the same as discriminating against them..." Marco polo 14:56, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah, yes, sorry, that was a Dutchism. In Dutch the 'street meaning' is used in the form of 'discriminating someone'. A traveler like yourself might have known that. :) DirkvdM 17:39, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Farty

Hi! I am trying to translate the words "my farty boss" into Czech. What connotations does the word "farty" have for an English native speaker in this case? What do you imagine the boss to be like? Thanks in advance. —Daniel Šebesta {chat | contribs} 23:33, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

For me, the immediate connotation was one of flatulance, but that was quickly overridden by the realization that "farty" could also refer to "an old fart" or someone who is otherwise not with the times. 152.16.188.107 23:55, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that so far. Google gives repeated hits from different sources for the phrase "to my farty boss and his bowels." It seems to come from Craiglist originally[1]. Actually, most of the hits for "my farty boss" have this context. Is a native speaker likely to use such a phrase without referring to this particular article? —Daniel Šebesta {chat | contribs} 00:08, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't think so. I doubt I've ever heard anyone described as "farty" before in my life. —Angr 04:15, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

(Inanity alert) The first three distinct uses I found via Wikipedia's search box were, in order of appearance: Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants, Your Sinclair programmer Jonathan Davies's "most bestest pet ever" Farty the Warthog, and "Thus, driving directions often include "Farty-Far" [fɑɹti fɑɹ]" in the article on St. Louis-area English. ---Sluzzelin talk 05:20, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I have certainly heard fartypants used as a child (Google:Results 1 - 10 of about 17,100 for fartypants) and you could spell it the South Park way too (Google:Results 1 - 10 of about 63,700 for "farty pants"). Perhaps you are not hanging around with many gaseous people? Lanfear's Bane

If someone described their boss to me as farty, I'd assume the employer in question was a bit of a wanker. DuncanHill 13:28, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone who responded! —Daniel Šebesta {chat | contribs} 16:09, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Why don't Irish people eat more than 239 beans at a sitting? Because even one more would be too farty! Gzuckier 17:06, 14 August 2007 (UTC)