BotNS in German

maru · 05 Dec 2004, 15:00 · from 2004-December.txt.gz

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From: marudubshinki at gmail.com (maru)
Date: Sun Dec  5 15:00:36 2004
Subject: (urth) BotNS in German
In-Reply-To: <6.2.0.14.0.20041205233129.03b67560 at pop.gmx.net>
References: <20041203235555.73231.qmail at web14726.mail.yahoo.com>	<6.2.0.14.0.20041203214147.03cf27b0 at pop.gmx.net>	<20041203235555.73231.qmail at web14726.mail.yahoo.com>	<5.2.1.1.0.20041204084219.02d16d08 at pop.ntlworld.com>	<6.2.0.14.0.20041204105007.036bd598 at pop.gmx.net>	<17883243656.20041205233142 at poczta.fm>
	<6.2.0.14.0.20041205233129.03b67560 at pop.gmx.net>
Message-ID: <41B392DC.7050003 at gmail.com>

Well, barbican, to me, is pretty familiar- familiar enough I didn't even 
notice that it was supposed to be obscure. This is probably because I 
used to read a lot about castles and barbican is about the only other 
word used to describe 'gate'.  But some are pretty obscure- previously 
I'd never seen 'autarch' used as a noun (only as a small area of 
politcal theory-'autarchy') & I'm still not sure if 'lictor' is a real 
word. And 'cacogen'? Dunno.
~Maru

Hmpf MacSlow wrote:

>
>>
>>
>> According to my dictionaries, the German for barbican is
>> Barbakane,die; Torvorwerk, das
>
>
>
> Wow. Methinks I need a better dictionary!
>
> But, as I said, checking all kinds of dictionaries at the university 
> library and the Deutsche Bibliothek will probably help a lot. For the 
> time being, I just put the 'strange' words in brackets behind my 
> temporary translations of them. When I've collected enough of them 
> I'll make a trip to the library to check them all.
>
> Just curious: how well known is the word 'barbican' among native 
> speakers of English with an 'advanced' vocabulary? My German 
> vocabulary is pretty extensive, or so I'm told - I'm a native speaker, 
> I've always read a lot, I've had thirteen years of 'normal' school, 
> five years of university, three and a half years of professional 
> training as a goldsmith (including art history classes), I visit 
> museums and am interested in all kinds of 'cultural stuff' - yet I've 
> never in my life heard or read the word 'Barbakane' anywhere, I think.
>
> (Part of the 'problem' may be that I've been reading more English than 
> German for years now...)
>
> I'm just curious if that word, and others that Wolfe is using, could 
> be said to be slightly more 'common' in English than they are in 
> German, or if they're just as obscure.
>
> Hmpf
>
>
>
>
>
>
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