Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2012 July 3
| Language desk | ||
|---|---|---|
| < July 2 | << Jun | July | Aug >> | July 4 > |
| 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. |
July 3
editWhat is "muhziriabolah"?
editIs there such a word as "Muhziriabolah"? I heard it on West Wing season 4 episode 3. I can't find any reference to this word (or possibly last-name) other than West Wing transcription sites. I'm starting to think that it's a fictitious last-name for a fictional character.A8875 (talk) 18:56, 3 July 2012 (UTC)
- Don't know what it is, but it doesn't seem to be a real word in any language. Alansplodge (talk) 22:41, 3 July 2012 (UTC)
- Can you provide the sentence in which it was used? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 23:17, 3 July 2012 (UTC)
- "C.J.: There are some 120 news outlets covering the hour-to-hour movements of the President. Only the cream of the crop ride here with me. The rest are consigned to the zoo plane where they do not have moist towelettes. This is why I'm so disappointed that with the exceptions of Terry, Mike, Mark and Rachel, you all misspelled Muhzriabolah. < a bunch of unrelated things reacted>... M-U-H-Z-I-R-I-A-B-O-L-A-H." [1] Ironically the transcript misspelled Muhziriabolah. As you can see, the conversation provides zero context for the word. None of the preceding episodes provide any context either unfortunately. A8875 (talk) 00:31, 4 July 2012 (UTC)
- I can't say for certain in this case, but The West Wing had a tendency to represent real countries and rulers with fictional equivalents. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 09:53, 4 July 2012 (UTC)
- "C.J.: There are some 120 news outlets covering the hour-to-hour movements of the President. Only the cream of the crop ride here with me. The rest are consigned to the zoo plane where they do not have moist towelettes. This is why I'm so disappointed that with the exceptions of Terry, Mike, Mark and Rachel, you all misspelled Muhzriabolah. < a bunch of unrelated things reacted>... M-U-H-Z-I-R-I-A-B-O-L-A-H." [1] Ironically the transcript misspelled Muhziriabolah. As you can see, the conversation provides zero context for the word. None of the preceding episodes provide any context either unfortunately. A8875 (talk) 00:31, 4 July 2012 (UTC)
- Its probably a place in the fictional country of Qumar. That episode deals with an incident in Qumar. - X201 (talk) 12:21, 4 July 2012 (UTC)
- I don't recall the context, but perhaps it could be a fictional organization or political party like Hezbollah. An Arabic speaker may be able to say whether the name means anything in that language. — Cheers, JackLee –talk– 04:06, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
- That particular name gets mentioned only twice, as quoted by A8875. My guess is that Muhzriabolah|Muhziriabolah is meant to evoke whatever it happens to evoke in any given viewer, within the given fictional Middle East context. Sort of like a cryptic background reference. It is also true that TWW often came up with fictional place names. One example that is considered to be a goof, is Leo McGarry's "It's in the Oblast Region?" in the episode "Galileo". The "error" is even mentioned in the article. I'm not sure it wasn't intentional, but there you go. Irritating to those of us who love being irritated by these kind of things.---Sluzzelin talk 04:29, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
- I don't recall the context, but perhaps it could be a fictional organization or political party like Hezbollah. An Arabic speaker may be able to say whether the name means anything in that language. — Cheers, JackLee –talk– 04:06, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
- "Muhzir" looks like it theoretically could be an Arabic Stem IV active participle, but there doesn't appear to be any verb in the Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic which could give rise to such a form... AnonMoos (talk) 10:50, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
- If it's meant to be Arabic, I don't think it makes much sense to say it was misspelled. There's no standard orthography for Arabic. Jerk182 (talk) 23:54, 5 July 2012 (UTC)