Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 March 11

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March 11

Meaning of bull market hoodoo

The S&P and the Dow have now given back all gains for the year – the seven year bull market hoodoo looks like it may come again in the US.

I can't find out what the term "bull market hoodoo" means. Can anyone please tell me. 175.45.116.65 (talk) 00:26, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

For the first 2/3, see bull market. And hoodoo is synonymous with voodoo, mysticism, or superstition. So the way I read this is that they're saying that with the market down, people will begin to think "Of course it has to go up now, it can't get much lower!" and will thus be bullish by way of superstition. Dismas|^(talk) 00:35, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Or, in this sense the connotaton might also be "nonsense", rather than sympathetic magic. You should be giving us the link to what you read, IP 175. μηδείς (talk) 01:07, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

This article is probably what the OP is referring to. I found that by searching for the last half of their quote. Dismas|^(talk) 01:15, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

In this passage "hoodoo" clearly means "something that brings bad luck"—sense 3 here. The passage is saying (1) that the US stock markets have now been rising (in a bull market) for about 7 years since the crisis of 2008, (2) that some people think (superstitiously) that this is enough reason for them to start going down (the "seven-year bull market hoodoo"), and (3) that this may actually be happening. That is, roughly the reverse of what Dismas said. --65.94.51.62 (talk) 04:16, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

The ambiguity is deliberate. Reports by financial advisors need to written like horoscopes. Thincat (talk) 12:03, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

No, there is no ambiguity. --65.94.51.62 (talk) 16:36, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

"Hoodoo" is synonymous with "jinx".[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:04, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

There might be something to be gleaned from the past performance of FrobozzCo International. Could be gibberish, though. Feeling lucky? InedibleHulk (talk) 00:16, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Portuguese - biggest in the world

In São Paulo FC the nickname O Maior do Mundo is translated "The Biggest of the World". Would this be better translated as "The Biggest in the World"? Hack (talk) 03:18, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Probably. There is rarely a one-to-one correspondence when translating prepositions between languages. The same word can mean "in" "of" "from" "to" etc. when translated into English. I'm not familiar with Portuguese, but with French it works that way. This is a case where Sense-for-sense translation makes clear sense; because it gets the idiom correct. Word-for-word translation sounds like awkward English. --Jayron32 03:33, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

I speak (European) Portuguese as a mother tongue (but my native tongue is English). De/do/da/dos/das is used to indicate possession (among other uses). Do Mundo can be translated as "the world's", so "the world's biggest" would be a valid natural sensible translation. —Nelson Ricardo (talk) 02:47, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

Also, perhaps "greatest" would be better than "biggest"? jnestorius^(talk) 21:51, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

I would agree. 'The world's greatest' sounds better and more natural in English. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 15:08, 15 March 2015 (UTC)