Unglued about zlepenec

[David Powelstock]

motley assemblage?

 * * * * * * * * * *
David Powelstock
Assoc. Prof. of Russian and Comparative Literature
Chair, Comparative Literature
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02453



On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 3:44 PM, E Wayles Browne <ewb2 at cornell.edu> wrote:

> A mishmash?
> A mishmosh?
> A grabbag?
> A hodgepodge?
> A patchwork?
> A hash?
> --
> Wayles Browne, Assoc. Prof. of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics
> Morrill Hall 220, Cornell University
> Ithaca, New York 14853, U.S.A.
>
> tel. 607-255-0712 (o), 607-273-3009 (h)
> fax 607-255-2044 (write FOR W. BROWNE)
> e-mail ewb2 at cornell.edu
>
> ________________________________________
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [
> SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] on behalf of Martin Votruba [votruba+slangs at PITT.EDU
> ]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 1:32 PM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Unglued about zlepenec
>
> I wonder whether anyone could suggest an English equivalent, you don't
> need to speak Slovak to help.
>
> The question came up on a poli-sci panel at the ASEEES Convention, several
> native English speakers have been looking for an efficient word or phrase
> to use in their papers.
>
> The Slovak word zlepenec has a well-established terminological use in the
> sense of the English "conglomerate" (a type of rock), which is not a
> problem, but it has another meaning.
>
> It has been used in election campaigns for over a decade now to impute in
> a memorable way that some politicians are planning a coalition government
> that will be a cobbled-together, makeshift clump likely to come unglued at
> any time, or that they are running such a cabinet.
>
> The colloquial word is also used outside of politics from comments on the
> results of sloppy work, to hockey and soccer teams, to computer games, to
> art criticism. The noun (derived from the participle zlepeny, "glued
> together") has five features in contemporary Slovak that should preferably
> be conveyed by a matching English equivalent. It is expressive (colorful,
> catchy), readily understandable (and fairly common), pejorative, refers to
> something composed of incongruous parts, and implies that it was put
> together intentionally (human agency).
>
> Two possibilities:
>
> a jumbled clump -- lacks "intentionality"
> kludge -- not automatically pejorative and lacks "common use,
> understandability"
>
> Can someone, kindly, help with a better equivalent?
>
>
> Martin
>
> votruba "at" pitt "dot" edu
>
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