Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2009 March 27

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 27

Euphemisms

Well, more expressions with unusual content!

"He certainly thinks he's the Badgers bum"

"As mad as a Christmas cake without the cinnamon"

"Balder than a rabbits tongue"

"Sexier than 2 sheared ewe's"

"Wilder than a one legged wombat"

I have only heard so far of the last one but the other ones seem to be also used. Any idea what the origin of them?

-

Firtly, to be correct, it should be badger's bum (probably), rabbit's and ewes; secondly, there are many, many, euphemisms for mad in particular, so much that it featured on the show Balderdash and Piffle. I personally invent them on the spot as required. I shouldn't think that one can really put a date on the first use of terms like them, just popularisations. Saying that, presumably if you know of them, then they must have been mentioned somewhere. Can't help on specific origins though. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 19:53, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Well they're not euphemisms: they're similes. --TammyMoet (talk) 19:52, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I'd consider as mad as... as euphemisms, when people can say that outright. I mean, that sort of phrase seems less offensive than the simple statement - more joking than 'he should be admitted' seriousness. The others don't really work as euphemisms though. They're are all similies definitely, except for the first, which is more complicated. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 20:00, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

These might be simply made up examples of quasi-Australian similes (the references to sheared ewes and particularly wombats certainly point that way). Terry Pratchett has a good deal of fun in The Last Continent with this kind of thing, with characters at one point coming out with a string of such similes: Isn't that "snagged as a wombat's tonker?" No, no, no, that's when you chuck a twister, isn't it", said Clancy... Nah, that's "gonging like a possum's armpit, mate" (and so on). Wiktionary has a list. Outside Australia Chris Tarrant used to regularly describe people as "mad as a trumpet" on his breakfast show on Capital Radio, and "mad as a box of frogs" is another simile in common use. A euphemism, as TammyMoet points out, is something different - it's basically "saying something nice to avoid saying something nasty", saying "powdering one's nose" instead of "going to the toilet", for example. The Two Ronnies did an entire sketch on this once, with Ronnie Corbett using more and more convoluted (but conventional) euphemisms to ask for the location of the toilet and Ronnie Barker, finally understanding what Corbett wanted, saying "Ah, you want to sit on the doughnut in Granny's greenhouse". Tonywalton ^Talk 13:06, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Translation of the word "Nachtschleife"

What would be the English for a 12-minute television programme that is repeated endlessly, in a near-infinite loop between 9pm and 6am on a television channel, specifically a children's channel that doesn't air when the kids are supposed to be sleeping ? The German word is Nachtschleife, or "night loop", but I can't seem to come up with an accurate translation. Can someone help me ? Have a nice day, Rosenknospe (talk) 13:47, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

not sure what the exact word, but there used to be called test card, check the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_card Hope it helps... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.39.218.10 (talk) 14:07, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the effort, but I didn't exactly mean a test card. I mean a real show that is aired in a loop all night as a placeholder for when the channel doesn't air their normal programmes. Rosenknospe (talk) 14:13, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

See this article. Oda Mari (talk) 14:21, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Yule Log (TV program) describes a similar TV loop. I'd say "Late night TV loop" or "End of programning loop". I'm not sure I'd agree with the language of the Bernd das Brot article. "nocturnal" means being active at night and sleeping during the day. "during its nocturnal close-down period" sounds slightly off to my ears with regard to TV programs.76.97.245.5 (talk) 15:13, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Then see this. Oda Mari (talk) 15:32, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not saying the link isn't relevant, I'm just saying that whoever translated/ edited the English article chose rather unusual language and one might not wish to continue in that vein. Nocturnal, if you want to go with German, is "nachtaktiv". I'm not sure describing TV programming as that would work even in German. 76.97.245.5 (talk) 15:58, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Nacktaktiv? I seem to remember something like that, but I hope it was not televised... --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 21:52, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I've been working on the Bernd article for some days now. I've noticed this problem (which prompted me to work on the article) and that's why I'm seeking a better translation. I'll go for "late night television loop", it seems to describe the thing pretty well. Thank you very much everyone for your help. And oh, Mist! :D Have a nice day, Rosenknospe (talk) 17:42, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

If there isn't a technical term in English, perhaps a descriptive term might be better than an ad hoc jargon term, like "Late night TV loop". We do have "loop programs" in English, right? So perhaps it could just be described as "nighttime loop program". --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 02:29, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

"Overnight" is better than "late night", which might mean 11 pm to 2 am or something. "Loop" does not immediately bring the desired meaning to my mind; I'd rather say "overnight repeating program" or "show that repeats all night" or something like that. --Anonymous, 02:40 UTC, March 28, 2009.

On British television such short films made to be repeated as filler were in past days called Interludes, though they weren't usually shown all night.[1][2] --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 10:55, 30 March 2009 (UTC)