[Ads-l] No word for X

[Jonathan Lighter]

Of course, English has equivalents for all those words too. You don't have
to be "beautiful" to be "sexy."

Only a clumsy Latin circumlocution would work - probably not the sort of
thing a Roman would say in a situation calling for "sexy." A Roman would
have to be satisfied with something less.

The Americans have a word for it.

JL

JL

On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 9:18 AM Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

> There doesn't appear to be a Latin word that exactly translates to "sexy,"
> but that's not surprising. It's rare to find a word, especially for
> abstract concepts, that translates perfectly in all connotations. But there
> are number of Latin words for "beautiful" that encompass the concept of
> sexy:
>
> venustus/venusta
> formosus/formosa (well formed, shapely)
> pulcher/pulchra
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of
> Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Monday, July 22, 2019 8:33 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] No word for X
>
> It seems ungrammatical and nonsensical, even in Latin.
>
> What's the "a" (by, from) doing?  And "pudicus/-a/-um" means "chaste."
>
> If anything, the translation seems to say, "She's a lady of very little
> chastity."
>
> But that's not what "sexy" means.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 5:46 PM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Well, what do you expect from Google Translate?
> >
> > MAM
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 22, 2019, 4:20 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Well, Google translate says "She was a sexy lady" becomes "ipsa
> > > domina erat a parum pudici" which it back translates to "she was the
> > > mistress
> > of a
> > > small amount of sexy,"
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 11:06 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > There appears to be no word in Latin for "sexy."
> > > >
> > > > Um-research suggests that there appears to be no word for "sexy"
> > > > in any language other than English.
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 1:16 PM Jonathan Lighter <
> > wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> > > >
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > There appears to be no word in Latin for "sexy."
> > > > >
> > > > > JL
> > >
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> ---
> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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