Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 June 18

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June 18

"pendejera" (Venezuelan slang?)

1. 2017 June 16, “Parecemos, pero no somos, y si fuimos, no somos más”, in El Nacional[1]:

   Así se hace cómplice necesario y responsable del intento desesperado para engañar, confiando en que esos millones de ciudadanos hambreados, maltratados, gaseados, apaleados y reprimidos, incluidos los pocos maduristas que reverencian sin cavilar, síntoma clarísimo de pendejera vocacional, van a tragarse semejante fábula retorcida sin aviso ni protesto.

What does this mean? "Pendejera" is the name of the plant Solanum torvum according to es.wikipedia but that doesn't seem to be the meaning here. DTLHS (talk) 02:07, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

This source translates "pendejera" as: cowardice, unmanliness ... lack of character, namby-pambiness — 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:8C81:A23:E9F2:E55E (talk) 03:20, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

• "pendejera - English Translation - Word Magic Spanish-English Dictionary". www.wordmagicsoft.com.

I wonder whether that source applies to Venezuelan colloquial Spanish though. Obviously, pendejera is derived from "pendejo". That Wiktionary entry lists various meanings, and "coward" is attributed to various countries, but not to Venezuela which is specifically listed for only one meaning there: "dickhead (stupid person)". Similarly, Spanish Wiktionary only mentions Venezuela for the meaning "falto de inteligencia, entendimiento o astucia".[2] In this Chilean article the Venezuelan linguist Maylen Sosa explains the Venezuelan connotations of "pendejo", "a mild insult to disqualify someone". Perhaps I'd translate "pendejera vocacional" as "vocational stupidity" or "vocational dickheadery", but not "vocational cowardice" ---Sluzzelin talk 09:34, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

Pendejo (m) and "pendeja" (f) are the more common slang terms (the word for slang in Spanish is "jerga" by the way), and is a catch-all term meaning dumbass, idiot, moron, spineless, etc. I'm not Venezuelan but the addition of the ending '-era' would literally translate to 'one who does' (and if it was a male, it'd end in '-ero'. I'd take it to mean "one who commits stupid acts." The Spanish language is very fluid in Latin America so it's very common to have some slang be very regionalized and other slang very wide spread. UltravioletAlien (talk) 05:55, 24 June 2017 (UTC)

German translation of a Kennedy quote

Could somebody give me a good German translation of the following phrase from this speech by Kennedy: "yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand mankind's final war" — What would be the most literal equivalent to hand here?--Erdic (talk) 19:23, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

First thought: I do not think it will be done with just translating "hand" here....the whole sentence would be something like "stay your hand, knave" e.g....with the meaning of "am Handeln gehindert sein, werden". Lectonar (talk) 19:32, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

One translation found in several books [3] has "das den Ausbruch des letzten Krieges der Menschheit noch hemmt" (for "that stays the hand of mankind's final war"). This seems a fairly decent translation. What makes the phrase difficult to understand (to German non-native speakers of English) is maybe not so much the meaning of "hand", but the transitive use of stay in the sense of "keep sth. back". Fut.Perf. ☼ 20:18, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

I found it difficult to understand too, but the JFK Library confirms that you've lost an "of" in that quote; "stays the hand of mankind's final war" makes more sense. Alansplodge (talk) 20:30, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

Thank you all very much — now I do see the sense! Best--Erdic (talk) 19:11, 20 June 2017 (UTC)