Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 June 20

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June 20

[Welsh] I do not - differences

OK, I'm an avid Duolingo pupil and am making some concerted progress, but I'm thrown off continuously by what I suspect is Duolingo's adherence to colloquial Welsh and Google Translate's adherence to formal Welsh. For example: I do not study at university - Duolingo teaches us "dw i ddim yn" for I do not, whereas Google does "nid wyf yn".

So my questions are - which is used more in Wales everyday, and which is considered more "correct"? Because if I use "nid wyf yn" on Duolingo, it classes it as an error. Does any native speaker of Cymraeg actually use this literary/formal language?

Peter Greenwell (talk) 06:13, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

• Perhaps a pedantic point, but the correct answer to what is used more in Wales everyday is literally "I do not". Welsh in most parts of Wales is a very marginal language. (Despite the legal discrimination against English by the Assembly) Fgf10 (talk) 08:15, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

  Perhaps a pedantic point, but the question was not, "what is used more in Wales everyday?", but "which is used more in Wales everyday?", implying, "which of the two".  --Lambiam 08:55, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

Wiktionary labels dw as "colloquial, North Wales". It is not clear to me whether the comma is conjunctive or disjunctive. And the Wiktionary section bod § Conjugation lists dw i ddim as a "colloquial form". Presumably (cy-0), it is more an issue of register than of correctness.  --Lambiam 08:50, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

Go ahead, make my day

What exactly does the famous quote "Go ahead, make my day" mean? I understood it that if the robber harms Loretta, Harry will be only too happy to kill him, so he is just looking for excuses to go ahead and do it. So then Harry's day would be made and he would be satisfied with it. Is this correct? JIP | Talk 12:32, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

I think you understand it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:59, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

Smick-smack

Our article on the Florodora girl Clarita Vidal quotes Billie Burke "I remember Clarita Vidal, famous and smick-smack, who posed as if she were made of wax, with just one expression of sheer beauty". What does "smick-smack" mean? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 14:43, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

The scant examples on Wordnik don't help much. I surmise that in this context it is akin to slick/smooth/polished, but that's just WAG. 2603:6081:1C00:1187:398F:C182:48C8:BFA5 (talk) 17:23, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

The hits I'm seeing on Google Books suggest that smick-smack is outmoded slang for "kissing". Could it mean "kissable" in this context? Deor (talk) 17:52, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it means “elegant, first-rate.” John M Baker (talk) 03:37, 27 June 2021 (UTC)

@John M Baker: thank you - that would make sense. I can't think why I didn't try the OED myself! DuncanHill (talk) 15:34, 27 June 2021 (UTC)

What's the difference between elite bodybuilders and pro bodybuilders?

Sentence: Unlike pro wrestlers, pro male bodybuilders are not dying at an alarming rate. In fact, both overall and in the modern era, they are dying at a lower rate than the­ average American man.

On the other hand, elite bodybuilders are dying under age 66 at a much faster rate than pro athletes in major sports. 

Source Rizosome (talk) 14:53, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

I would guess that elite bodybuilders are the creme de la creme of pros, the ones that are more likely to do just about anything to get them over the top, and thus also more likely to suffer the consequences. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:05, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

Several sources equate being an elite bodybuilder with winning, or aspiring to win, the Mr. Olympia title.^[1]  --Lambiam 21:45, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

There is no difference. It's just elegant variation of language. Read the article. The study compared body builders to various groups and found that they had a lower mortality rate than professional wrestlers but a higher one than athletes in most professional sports. --Khajidha (talk) 09:41, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Khajidha is correct, at least as far as that article is concerned. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:01, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Kanshasai

After finding about the Kanshasai Festival at Uniqlo:

UNIQLO Kanshasai is a festival hosted by Uniqlo to thank our customers.

The word is composed by two parts:

感謝 (Kansha) = Appreciation

祭(Sai)= Festival, and can be translated literally as Appreciation Festival.

During the Kanshasai Festival it is our tradition to offer to customers gifts, special offers and more.

I thought of redirecting Kanshasai to Uniqlo, but Special:Search/Kanshasai gives results unrelated to Uniqlo. Is it a generic term for a promotion period by Japanese businesses? Does it merit an article? A redirection? --Error (talk) 18:07, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

感謝祭 ("Kanshasai") is the general Japanese translation of "Thanksgiving". The page 感謝祭 on the Japanese Wikipedia describes the North American festival of half-cooked/half-burnt turkeys and pumpkin pie. "Kanshasai Festival" means, literally, "Appreciation Festival Festival".  --Lambiam 21:33, 20 June 2021 (UTC)