Fortochka

[William Ryan]

Yes, an honest mouth-filling word with several useful meanings, mostly 
to builders and sailors, and I hope it was not offended by my earlier 
posting - but it is not a fortochka. When Frankie looked over the 
transom she was looking through the window over the door: 
"Root-a-toot-toot, three times she shot/Right through that hotel door". 
To judge from the number of variants of this song, many singers, 
including Burl Ives (he has her looking over a "transom door") didn't 
know what a transom was.

Will

On 03/02/2011 18:13, Hugh McLean wrote:
> I feel the excellent word "transom" has been slighted in this 
> discussion. It is enshrined in my memory in the immortal lines from 
> "Franky and Johnny": "Franky looked over the transom/ And there to her 
> great surprise/ She saw her lover Johnny/ Snug in bed with Nelly Blize."
>> On Wed, 2 Feb 2011 12:43:00 +0000
>>  William Ryan <wfr at SAS.AC.UK> wrote:
>>> A transom window, which may or may not open, is normally above a 
>>> door transom, and full width, so not the same thing at all. Also, 
>>> "fortochka" is a word used very frequently in Russian while 
>>> "transom" is not much used in English.
>>
>> Agreed on transom.
>> As for the issue of frequency, the difficulty in finding a proper 
>> translation may reflect the fact that while fortochki are common in 
>> Russia, they are not so in Western Europe or in the U.S. So why would 
>> English have a word for it? especially a common one ...
>>
>> Our classes have large windows with smaller middle bottom panes that 
>> open out. Nobody knows what to call them. I'll see whether _Fine 
>> Homebuilding_ has a term handy
>>
>> Ventilation window has worked for me, AFTER I explain to the students 
>> what it is.
>>
>> -FR
>>
>> Francoise Rosset, Associate Professor
>> Chair, Russian and Russian Studies
>> Coordinator, German and Russian
>> Wheaton College
>> Norton, Massachusetts 02766
>> Office: (508) 285-3696
>> FAX:   (508) 286-3640
>>
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