Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2012 April 3

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April 3

Term in singular for SS personnel on a Nazi concentration camp staff

This comes up in descriptions of artwork produced by inmates of Nazi concentration camps, before or after the liberation. I lack a concise term to refer to the figure of a uniformed individual on the camp's SS staff, unidentified by rank or position. They generally are depicted supervising, disciplining, or punishing inmates. All these figures wear the flat-topped, visored peaked cap with the SS insignia, but it seems that this was the uniform headgear of NCOs and ranking officers alike. The term "SS soldier" is ruled out as they weren't Waffen-SS or in combat. I've used "SS man" despite its being a cognate for SS-Mann, the German term for the lowest SS rank. Can you suggest something more suitable? -- Deborahjay (talk) 08:48, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

"SS member" is the ususal term. It works for all levels, from the lowest to Adolf Hitler himself, who was SS member No. 1. Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 09:00, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

[OP:] That won't do in this context, whose focus is on that person's [unspecified] role in the camp. Example: A catalogue or exhibit caption would describe as "SS guard" a uniformed man patrolling a camp fence, with the descriptor "guard" being inferred from his action, whereas "[SS] member" wouldn't serve that function. -- Deborahjay (talk) 10:31, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

The organisation in question was the SS-Totenkopfverbände or SS-TV for short. However, the general term "concentration camp guard" or "SS guard" has a lot of Google results. We have an article called Female guards in Nazi concentration camps. A large number of the lower-ranking guards were recruited from occupied territories, especially the Ukraine, Belarus amd the Baltic States. Although some of these were part of the SS organisation, many were in various types of units described as Volunteer Auxiliaries. "These volunteers were called Hilfswillige (Auxiliaries) by the Germans, often abbreviated to 'Hiwis'." Alansplodge (talk) 11:54, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

@Deborahjay: Of course you could use "SS guard" if that can be reasonably inferred. This term cannot be used for all SS camp personnel, but in the example you gave, it is well justified. This goes for any role or rank that is evident or can be reasonably surmised. Describing someone like Joseph Mengele as an "SS doctor" would be fine, too. Or "SS volunteer auxiliary" or "SS officer" if that can be reasonably inferred from the uniform or context. I thought you were looking for a generally applicable blanket term for cases where the role and rank are unknown and cannot be inferred, which is why I mentioned "SS member". Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 15:33, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

"SS trooper"? Proteus (Talk) 16:52, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Portal symptoms

What does the expression portal symptoms mean, for example, portal symptoms of ADHD? Lova Falk talk 11:03, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Are you sure you've read that right? I just googled "portal symptoms of ADHD" and got over 7.5 million hits that include some of those words, but zero hits for that exact expression. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 12:10, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I am sure, and yet you are right. I was at a lecture in which the lecturer (a physician) kept talking about "portal symptoms of ADHD"... Lova Falk talk 08:04, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

There is the special case of portal hypertension symptoms. I read that hypertension can be associated with ADHD / various learning disabilities in children. The Karolinska or the medical faculty in Uppsala may have a library to research that (it seems Rochester University, NY, has made the claim originally).--Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 20:13, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Just an off-the-wall intuitive opinion. Might it be an ultra-modern term to indicate those initial essential signs that one would pick up at the outset of the diagnosis procedure to indicate which way the medic (or nurse) should be proceeding. Perhaps more relevant where a diagnosis can be one of a related but variable bunch of conditions like ADHD or Down syndrome, for example. Richard Avery (talk) 07:30, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you, your intuitive opinion actually makes a lot of sense to me. Lova Falk talk 08:04, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

So it's not an irrational mistrust of cakes then? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:46, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Japanese: Pronunciation of ～す

Hi, I've noticed that some Japanese speakers pronounce the verb ending ～す quite distinctly as "-su", while in other cases it simply sounds like "-s". Is this just personal preference, or is it a regional or demographic distinction? Are individual speakers even consistent in the way they say this, or is the same person likely to vary their pronunciation depending on context, formality, or whatever? 86.181.200.87 (talk) 23:04, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

I think it's personal habit. Pronunciation is never taught at school. Native speakers are not pronunciation-conscious when they speak ja and do not care/tell if it's "su" or "s" when they hear す. I'm not sure, but I probably pronounce "su" in the verb ending and "s" in です. Oda Mari (talk) 05:34, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

It's also affected by social register: formal, cute, brusque, etc. and possibly by gender. And I'm sure there's dialectal variation as well. — kwami (talk) 06:46, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

How would you characterise the pronunciations in terms of "formal", "cute", and so on. Is "-su" more formal? Or is that cute? 86.181.203.7 (talk) 17:03, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't know. I suspect -su is used in both cases: It is not by itself cute or formal, but is characteristic of cute, formal, and other affected registers of speech, which are primarily indicated by body language, vocabulary, and tone of voice. A businessman using it with his superiors, at the low end of his vocal range while avoiding eye contact, would convey a very different impression than a school girl using it with her peers and accenting it with a perky high pitch. But that's a probably rather ignorant guess; you'd need a sociolinguistic study to know for sure. — kwami (talk) 21:46, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

the meaning of "blow me away"

Hi. I am a student in China ,I am writing a essay about the phrase "blow somebody away", can you help me ? I want to know how many kinds of meaning does it have. In "Where Your glory is I wanna be Where Your beauty is I wanna see Where Your scars are born I’ll lay a kiss Cause it’s your presence, Lord, that I miss You blow me away You’re beautiful, You’re wonderful, You’re glorious you are So marvelous, so majestic, so powerful you are"

what does it mean by saying "you blow me away"? And do you know "You Blow Me Away " ?(by Artist: Robert Palmer from Album: Honey) You Blow Me Away Robert Palmer

I was all at sea 'til you rescued me Saw through my charade Said don't be afraid

My life was just pretence You won my confidence And came to my defence You blow me away

Saw through my masquerade You made me unafraid Broke down my barricade You blow me away

I didn't have a clue 'til I looked at you When I saw your face It all fell into place

Here in your arms What can I say All of your charms Blow me away

You must have been aware That this here love affair Could take us anywhere You blow me away

You washed my pain away I saw the light of day You helped me find a way You blow me away

what does that mean by saying "blow me away"?

if there is a woman who is very beautiful. the man who want to date with her is short of courage and confidence, so he decided to walk away instead of asking her out. can the man say something like"she blowed me aways with her beauty" to express his feelings ?

If you have time ,please explain them to me . thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Yuan zengrong (talk • contribs) 23:46, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Blown away, as in carried away by the wind, as in feeling helpless or powerless or overwhelmed by something. Look up the lyrics of "Blowing Away" by The 5th Dimension, for another example. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:05, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

I agree that this is the correct meaning here. However, beware that there is a second meaning: "to be killed, as having your head blown away by bullets". Example: "The man with the gun threatened to blow me away if I didn't open the safe". StuRat (talk) 02:32, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

In that particular usage, the "wind" is the bullet. There's also the Monty Python variation, which is a play on the more general meaning. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:01, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

I actually think that in StuRat's example, "blow [someone] away" has a different meaning than in the other examples above. I agree with Baseball Bugs' definition for the examples provided by the person asking the question. In those examples, the majesty, beauty, or magnificence are an overwhelming force like a strong wind that leaves someone powerless. In StuRat's example, though, the meaning of "blow away" is a little more concrete and violent. In his example, the bullet is likened to an explosion that "blows" away a person's body, or at least a part of the body such that result is death. The two expressions share a meaning of "annihilate", but using what I think is a different metaphor. In StuRat's example the annihilation is physical, whereas in the questioner's example it is metaphysical. Marco polo (talk) 14:35, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

If metaphors apply to metaphysical things, then physical things must have phors.  :) -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 19:47, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

The 5th Dimension lyrics are "I feel like I may go blowin' away". Intransitive. The transitive use, "you blow me away / she blew me away", are AFAICT (nearly always) based on the gun metaphor: your/her impact is so strong it's like getting hit with a bullet. If you want a wind metaphor, IMO it would be better to say "I get carried away".

As for where the 'blow' metaphor for guns comes from, it's related to "blew his head off" etc. — kwami (talk) 21:29, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Another variation on the first meaning is "impress me". As in "I hope you blow me away with your presentation". StuRat (talk) 20:48, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Broadly, I think we can say "blow me away" means "affect me as strongly as a hurricane or a bomb". —Tamfang (talk) 18:44, 7 April 2012 (UTC)