Friday 4 July 2008

 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Liz Anderson

Liz suggests


Mind your language

Mind your language

Wednesday, 28th November 2007

Adam Jacot de Boinod (surely a pseudonym) is at it again.

He’s the man who gave us The Meaning of Tingo, full of words that look funny in English (bum, Arabic for ‘owl’) or encapsulate an idea that it takes a sentence in English to explain. Very amusing it was too. My husband kept reading bits out while I was peeling the potatoes. Then doubts crept in. Could tingo, a word from Easter Island, really mean ‘to borrow things from a friend’s house, one by one, until there’s nothing left’? Mr Jacot de Boinod’s definition came from They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases, by Howard Rheingold (1988). Mr Rheingold does not say ‘until there’s nothing left’, but he places tingo in ‘a strange borderland between breach of etiquette and high praise’, because if you admire a friend’s possession enough to ask for it, you pay the donor a supreme compliment.

So Mr Rheingold’s ‘meaning’ is an explanation of social context. It’s like glossing borrow as ‘to get money for another drink in a public house by pretending that you will give it back to the donor the next time you see him’.

1 | 2  Next page 

More articles from: Dot Wordsworth | this section

Subscribe now

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Comments

Post a comment


Your comment:*

Your name:*

Your email address:*
(We won't publish this)

*Required information

Please click the button only once - your comment will not be published immediately


In this section

Letters

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

Diary

Penny Smith

Penny Smith gives a rundown of her week 

The NHS needs its Reformation

The Spectator on reforming the NHS

Glasgow East is Brown’s dirty little secret: a hideous, costly social experiment gone wrong

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

Related articles

A very English coup — and the end of our national church

Theo Hobson

On the eve of the General Synod and the Lambeth Conference, Theo Hobson says that the sleeping giant of evangelical and orthodox Anglicanism has been awoken by liberal agitation and Rowan Williams’s failed leadership. The church is damaged beyond repair

Plumed hats, rapiers and heaving bosoms

Gerald Warner

Gerald Warner celebrates the unexpected appearance of one last ‘swashbuckling novel’, and mourns the loss of a genre that taught boys honour, courage and chivalry

Another Voice

Matthew Parris

There are no ‘good’ teachers: the teacher who is good for you may wreck another’s prospects

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

Charles Moore reflects on his trip to Afghanistan

Shared Opinion

Hugo Rifkind

If Scotland is to be independent, then why not London? And good luck to what’s left

Spectator recommends

Sky - Official Site

Build your own Sky package online. Sky TV, Broadband & Talk only £16.

IT Careers and Training at Computeach

Typical IT salary in the UK is £39K. Get fantastic IT training to find a career in IT. Apply today.


Spectator classifieds

ROME CENTRE

PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique

City Breaks. ROME and PARIS

ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit  www.romanreference.com  and  www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.

Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).

Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs!  You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other