Feb 24, 2021 12:44
3 yrs ago
23 viewers *
Arabic term
الزفر
Arabic to English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
Novel
من سوء الحظ هذه المرة، أنني قبل دخولي إلى الصف الثالث حدثت حادثة جعلتني بعيدا كل البعد عن واقعي، سارح البال، خائفا، فاقد الثقة، وأحس برغبة في البكاء. كنا قد تعودنا على صراخ أبي، خصامه، ولسانه الزفر الذي يطلقه على أمي، أو على أي أحد منا. ولكنني لم أتعود أن أراه يرفع يده عليها. تلك الحادثة كسرتني كثيرا، جعلتني أكره أبي كثيرا
Proposed translations
(English)
5 +1 | Foul, filthy, disgusting, revolting | Fuad Yahya |
4 +3 | Insults - Swear words. | Morano El-Kholy |
4 | foul mouth | Osama Sheta'a |
4 | wicked tongue | Saeed Najmi |
Proposed translations
+1
1 hr
Selected
Foul, filthy, disgusting, revolting
The adjective زفر means foul or filthy. It is most commonly used for foul-smelling things, like decomposed remains or old fish, but, by extension, it can be used for anything that causes the same human reaction of disgust. It can be applied to somebody's mouth, tongue, or words. It can also be used to decribe someone's intentions.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+3
6 mins
Insults - Swear words.
والله أعلم
Peer comment(s):
agree |
Linda Al-Bairmani
: Foul language,
2 mins
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Thank you a lot.
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agree |
Yassine El Bouknify
16 mins
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Thank you a lot.
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agree |
Diya Takrouri
: dirty-tongued
1 hr
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Thank you a lot.
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neutral |
Saeed Najmi
: Hi Morano, if I may ask, how would you use the above terms in the context of the source sentence?
1 day 22 hrs
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2 hrs
foul mouth
He had a foul mouth.
.كان زفر اللسان
.كان زفر اللسان
Peer comment(s):
neutral |
Fuad Yahya
: It is improper and to repost someone else's answer, already posted, as a separate answer of your own. / Thanks for your kind response, Osama. No harm done and no hard feelings among friends. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.
1 hr
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sorry, I haven't noticed your answer. you wrote a long answer with many equivalent meanings and I didn't read it all, so I wrote my one meaning answer. I will hide it if you want. / It's my pleasure to be one of your acquaintance.
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3 hrs
wicked tongue
1. I have found an entry for ''foul mouth'' with the meaning of ''a habit of speaking in an indecent and offensive way''. This doesn't seem to reflect what the author's father ''spits'' out of his mouth.
2. A stronger phrase would be:
''wicked tongue'' which means ''An abusive, vulgar, nasty, or otherwise objectionable manner of speaking.''
3. Attempt at the entire clause:
and his wicked tongue that he unleashes on my mother...
ولسانه الزفر الذي يطلقه على أم mouth that he unleashes on my mother
2. A stronger phrase would be:
''wicked tongue'' which means ''An abusive, vulgar, nasty, or otherwise objectionable manner of speaking.''
3. Attempt at the entire clause:
and his wicked tongue that he unleashes on my mother...
ولسانه الزفر الذي يطلقه على أم mouth that he unleashes on my mother
Peer comment(s):
neutral |
Fuad Yahya
: "Wicked" is OK, too, but I feel that it does not quite convey the foul stench and the revolting nature of the abusive words used by the alleged abuser in the story, as portrayed by the narrator, who seems intent upon conveying a higher degree of disgust.
56 mins
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Right. The thing is I have been trying to get the guys who posted nouns as translations to react and didn't want to get into the issue of appropriateness that you are touching upon here.
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Discussion
Indeed, neither ''wicked'' nor ''foul'' do convey the right meaning the context. But the thing is there is the issue of ''feasibility''/''appropriacy''/''authenticity''. Certain adjectives collocate with certain nouns but not with others. To cut a long story short, my best choice would be ''filthy'', but we cannot talk of ''filthy mouth'' or ''filthy tongue''. It usually collocates with ''language''.