call a spade a spade

[Douglas Wilson]

 On Tue 17/06/08  8:43 PM , "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" gcohen at MST.EDU
sent:
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 Sender:       American Dialect Society  
 Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"  
 Subject:      Re: call a spade a spade 

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 Btw, I checked Google for Merkel's exact wording, and found  it in
the excerpt below. Notice that "call a spade a spade" has a
confrontational tinge that's lacking in Merkel's formulation. Even
the semantically close "not beat around the bush" has somewhat
aggressive/confrontational overtones. Merkel had to walk a fine line
between diplomacy (she's proud of restoring good will in Germany's
relations with the U.S.) and toughness (for domestic consumption).
Imho, she handled the task very well. 
 Gerald Cohen 
 [excerpt on the Merkel-Bush meeting]: 
 http://www.rundschau-online.de/html/artikel/1212172838366.shtml 
 Freundschaftlich, offen, direkt und konstruktiv nennen Bush und die
Kanzlerin das bilaterale Verhältnis. "Es macht Spaß, weil man nicht
um den heißen Brei herumreden muss", sagt Merkel. 
 [Translation: Bush and the Chancellor call the bilateral
relationship friendly, open, direct, and constructive. "It's fun,
because we don't have to beat around the bush," says Merkel.] 
 Maybe the translator was a little confused about "beat around the
bush". Here is an example of some German confusion regarding "beat
around the bush" vs. "beat the bushes" or so (if I'm reading it
right).

http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewWrongentry.php?idThread=44743&idForum=3&lp=ende&lang=de
[3]
 I suppose the German idiom in question is based on a cat sidling
cautiously around something hot (again, if I'm reading it right);
here is a comparable expression, applied to Merkel:

http://www.bild.de/BTO/news/aktuell/2006/03/12/heil-interview/heil-interview.html
[4]
 I guess in English one could also say something like "we don't have
to pussyfoot around the issues".
 But, hmmm, maybe this would be offensive to somebody or other ....
 -- Doug Wilson


Links:
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[1] mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
[2] mailto:gcohen at MST.EDU
[3]
http://dict.leo.org/forum/viewWrongentry.php?idThread=44743&idForum=3&lp=ende&lang=de
[4]
http://www.bild.de/BTO/news/aktuell/2006/03/12/heil-interview/heil-interview.html

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