[Lexicog] new idiom

Fritz Goerling Fritz_Goerling at SIL.ORG
Sun Mar 18 18:30:28 UTC 2007


Hayim,

 

Is this boy baba a positive or negative term? 'Strong' and 'bossy' do not go
together for me.  A 'strong woman' sounds positive to me, while 'bossy' does
not. So if this boy baba is not a 'Kampfhenne' (= fighting hen), a German
term for a 'malicious woman with a fierce temper; a vixen', what is it?

 

Fritz

 

 

Another idiom describing a very strong and bossy woman in Russian is "boy
baba" (here is boy not like in English 'boy', and not Tom boy girl, but 'a
battle', and there is non-idiomatic parallel to this expression 'boevaya
zhenstchina" ) so the literary meaning can be translated approximately as
'warrior woman'. This is a metafor and has nothing to do with war or battle.

Hayim Y. Sheynin




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