Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2006 December 21

=December 21=

Russian>English: a memorial inscription in Latvia
My source (Photo No. 42800) says this Russian inscription was posted at a mass grave in a forest in Latvia: How to translate this into English? I require particular accuracy on the second word; a provisional translation rendered it as "murdered." -- Thanks, Deborahjay 07:27, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
 * ПАМЯТИ ПОГИБШИХ


 * The first word means "To the memory" the second word is a genitive plural of an adjective derived from a verb meaning "perish, be lost, be killed".  So the whole thing means "To the memory of the lost/perished/killed".  As you can see, the second word is a bit ambiguous.  Marco polo 14:26, 21 December 2006 (UTC)


 * That ambiguity is indeed to the point. The provisional (actually, mediated ) translation shows a certain characteristic intention to reflect usage in other languages (notably Yiddish) while avoiding the euphemistics of what has been termed "Nazi-Deutsch"). "Murdered" isn't necessarily appropriate in English, hence my caution in using it. Thanks! -- Deborahjay 00:35, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Rumbula protest banner text: Latvian(?)>English
The text (Photo No. 42813) appears on a banner posted at the site of the WWII massacre in the Rumbula Forest near Riga, Latvia: Is this, as I suspect, in Latvian, and what would be its translation into English? The provisional translation is something like "[This] must not [happen] again!" -- Thanks, Deborahjay 13:28, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
 * TAS NEDRĪKST ATKĀRTOTIES!
 * It is in Latvian and it really means "This must not happen again" or rather "It should never repeat again". --Daarznieks 22:03, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Curious about George.
Any Stan Freberg fans out there? Anyone who lived through the 50s? Preferably both?

I remember listening to several Stan Freberg shows/records/etc. where it sounds like the name George is used in a fashion that sounds unusual. (I'm not including St. George and the Dragonet).

In essence, if my memory serves me right, there would be some dialog in which a phrase that sounded like "That's so george" would appear, where, from context, it sounded like george was being used as a word meaning ordinary, tedious, or square. I never remember hearing that anywhere else.

Does anyone have an idea if I'm dreaming the whole thing up, or did someone try to use george as a synonym for the above, but it never really took off. This would have been in the USA around 1955, give or take a decade. Bunthorne 23:43, 21 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm not 100% certain, but I think it was used that way by Robert Wagner, playing a young hotshot air force pilot in a 1958 movie, The Hunters. (Should know soon - I'm getting it from Canada's version of Netflix.) Clarityfiend 04:41, 22 December 2006 (UTC)


 * As a youngster I heard a lot of the Freberg shows, but I can't recall ever hearing this particular usage of "george". Maybe it just went over my head, if it was there.  I do remember Liberace often saying "I wish my brother George was here", but that's a different thing.  JackofOz 01:04, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
 * While watching a Space Patrol episode, "Exploding Stars", it includes a commercial to sell one of the Space Patrol toys, and the actor boy demonstrating the rocket toy says, "that's so George!", expressing he thinks the toy is really cool (rather than "square" or ordinary). The show was from about 1954. 2600:1700:6804:E80:7C89:C8AE:3885:4043 (talk) 01:42, 5 February 2024 (UTC)