Fwd: dictionary

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Just curious:
Where is a Serbian word for "spider" hidden in "smuvati"? (My dictionary gives only "pauk". I assume the word referred to is "muha" = a fly). And why is it necessary to find an English "spider"-equivalent for the concept "seduce"?  Is there such an equivalent in any of the other Slavic languages, and if not, why should English
be expected to have one?

IAC, I don't see the reason for all the angst here. Why not simply translate "smuvati" as "seduce" and
move on to the next item? What am I missing here?

Gerald Cohen

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Message from Salikoko Mufwene, 4/8/2012:

Any lexicographer out there that can answer's this other lexicographer's
question?

Sali.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FW: dictionary
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2012 08:42:01 +0100
From: Pavle Pavlovic <ppavlovicc at hotmail.com>
To: <s-mufwene at uchicago.edu>

Dear professor Mufwene,
my name is Pavle and I am currently working on a Serbian-English
dictionary. One word gives me plenty of hard times. The word "smuvati"
in Serbian - which means to "seduce". Well, this word being derived from
the word spiders, it renders the meaning which suggests of web, flea,
spiders,.
It means that seduction is, at least at the level of suggestion,
compared with the knitting of web around a spider's victim. Is there
something similar in English? Something that hits the meaning
colourfully! I am being at great pains to solve it and your suggestion
would be of much help to me and my colleagues. If there is no such word
English, perhaps some idiom might work and do the job.

Sincerely,


Pavle Pavlovic

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