[Ads-l] Adage: Traduttori traditori (Translators, traitors)

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Mon Apr 3 19:17:57 UTC 2017


> Can’t think of a word meaning ‘translator' that rhymes with “traitor”
> or vice versa.

Neither can I.

> The best I can come up with at the moment is
> “renderer-offenderer”.

Viewing the task broadly and removing the restraints of good taste and sense:

To convert you must subvert
To spell out is to sell out
Explicator hallucinator
To decode is to implode
Transceiver deceiver

On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 7:14 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>> On Apr 2, 2017, at 5:49 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks Ben. While searching I came across some instances of the longer
>> version of the saying. Interestingly, an 1824 Italian book suggested
>> that the phrase was an English proverb.
>>
>> Year: 1824 (M.DCCC.XXIV)
>> Title: Aloune prose del conte Giambatista Giovio
>> Publisher: Per Giovanni Silvestri, Milano
>>
>> https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl80AAAAMAAJ&q=traduttori#v=snippet&
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> E un proverbio inglese, e quasi una verità d'ogni idioma, che i
>> traduttori sono traditori.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>
> If so, given the lack of suitable rhymed nominals, this is one of those passages that improve with translation (which is ironic, given the proverb), like (according to some) Poe’s poetry translated by Baudelaire.  Can’t think of a word meaning ‘translator' that rhymes with “traitor” or vice versa.  The best I can come up with at the moment is “renderer-offenderer”.
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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