Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 March 13

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March 13

'Whacle' - I used it in some writing years ago - I was sure it was a word, obscure and obsolete, but legit

Now I can't find it. Did I just make it up? It's meant to mean the hairs under the armpit. Not hirci

thanks

Adambrowne666 (talk) 03:29, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Not "wacko" or some variation thereof? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:53, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

No - the word is sometimes hurled at me, but not in the context of axillary hairs Adambrowne666 (talk) 05:21, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Not this[1] either, then. Nor this.[2] You've gotten some guesses here, for what it's worth.[3] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:37, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Ha, you found me on Reddit! - thanks, though, for the first definition - a duck bouncing on another duck - love it. Adambrowne666 (talk) 15:17, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

A Certain Justice

Does the alternative title of Puncture Wounds, A Certain Justice, mean that the justice is certain or that it's some (certain) justice? The film's Russian title, Некая справедливость, favors the latter, while, for example, the Polish title, Nieuchronna sprawiedliwość, favors the former meaning. Thanks. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 13:05, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

In English, "a certain [something]" usually means a specific type of that something. For example, the expression "a certain irony". Whether that's exactly what the filmmaker intended, I couldn't say. Maybe he's deliberately using it in multiple ways. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:51, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

If it were intended to mean that justice is unavoidable, it would be just "certain justice". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:38, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

The phrase "a certain justice" is often used (generally in the form "a certain justice in the fact that" or "a certain justice in that"} to indicate basically the same idea as "poetic justice". For example, see how the phrase is used here: https://books.google.com/books?id=cwL7aF-EB84C&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=%22a+certain+justice+in+the+fact%22&source=bl&ots=XOTjIeAMSX&sig=ACfU3U00GVpKjUeWKFJSeUjCFjbJJsWJSA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiK-PXx_v_gAhXQTN8KHZCcAK0Q6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22a%20certain%20justice%20in%20the%20fact%22&f=false

To quote: "Although few people acknowledged it, there was a certain justice in the fact that the painting ended up in Japan, since another sunflower painting by Van Gogh, which had been acquired by a Japanese collector around 1920, had been destroyed in the Second World War."

Do any of the fates of the characters in the film show the sort of aptness or appropriateness that would lend them to be described as "poetic justice"? --Khajidha (talk) 20:54, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

the name lucas and the Lycians

I was wondering if Lucas could be derived from the nation of Lycia. (On Wikipedia and wiktionary there are claims like that Lucas came frome the verb lucere(uncited), and on Wiktionary it seems to be saying that it comes from the Greek "Laconians",(that is, the laconic Spartans) but etymology should always be doublechecked.) I mean, one hears of roman Lucases a lot more than Greek Lucases, and there some evidence and plenty of myth that the Romans or Etruscans or both have roots in Asia Minor. Besides, if it did also come from the Greek, it might have been because of the recently discovered Trojan city in Greece, from possibly Lycian captives brought back from the Trojan War.(I mean, saying the area near Sparta was called Laconia because Spartans didn't talk much could easily have been a wrong guess by ancient Greek writers).Thanks 144.35.45.46 (talk) 22:47, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Here's what EO has to say.[4] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:09, 14 March 2019 (UTC)

144.35.45.46 -- they have different first-syllable vowels in Greek: Λουκας vs. Λυκια -- AnonMoos (talk) 04:58, 14 March 2019 (UTC)