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To Put a Pet to Sleep / Put Down?

av jkph00, 8 januari 2013

Meddelanden: 16

Språk: English

jkph00 (Visa profilen) 8 januari 2013 01:23:48

Today I had to have our cat, a friend of over ten years, put to sleep because of metastatic cancer. Is there a gentle way to express that in Esperanto or would one say, Hodiaǔ mi devis eǔtanazii nian katon, kiu estis amiko de pli ol dek jaroj or perhaps, Hodiaǔ mi devis kompate morigi nian katon, kiu estis amiko de pli ol dek jaroj?

Thanks for your help.

erinja (Visa profilen) 8 januari 2013 02:37:48

I'm so sorry. My family has had a number of those situations over the years and I know how it just crushes you to have to do it, even though you know it's the right decision. When I was in college, my parents had to euthanize our dog, who wasn't even very old, on my birthday, also for cancer. It was more than a decade ago but I still get teary thinking about it.

On the linguistic front, Esperanto doesn't have a lot of euphemisms. I'm trying to remember what words I have used myself in this situation, or my Esperantist friends have used. Eŭtanazii is probably your best bet, because people would definitely understand. I really would hate to use "mortigi" here, even with "kompate", because it sounds so harsh ("I compassionately killed my cat?" ). I think I have personally used eŭtanazii when I needed to; if I didn't use that, I can't imagine what I used, because it surely wasn't an Esperanto translation of "to put down" or "to put to sleep".

If I had to make up my own Esperanto euphemism, I might say that I took the cat to the vet to end his suffering. That might be something like "Hodiaŭ ni devis finigi la suferadon de nia kato, kiu estis amiko de pli ol dek jaroj" (if nothing else, the -is ending should clue in the listener - presumably your cat wouldn't suddenly decide to stop being your friend)

Tempodivalse (Visa profilen) 8 januari 2013 03:09:27

My sympathies. I've never had pets but I can imagine what a heart-rending situation that must have been.

Esperanto's precision results in it tending to avoid euphemisms. Unless you want to come up with your own euphemism along the lines of what erinja suggested, I think "eŭtanazii" modified by an adverb like "kompate" is probably the gentlest way to put it. I don't think "kompate mortigi" is necessarily contradictory -- if you look at it as "mort + igi" then it merely means "to make dead".

sudanglo (Visa profilen) 8 januari 2013 11:49:02

I don't see why you shouldn't say Ni iris al la veterinaro por dormigi la katon, or if you want something closer to 'put down' then kuŝigi.

My French dictionary offers 'Faire piquer le chien' for have the dog put down'' - in other words injektigi.

In any case, eŭtanazii suggests you did it yourself. For having the vet do it I think you want hodiaŭ mi devis eŭtanaziigi la katon

Edit: if Mortigi is too brutal, how about Malvivigi

Timtim (Visa profilen) 8 januari 2013 12:31:58

sudanglo:if Mortigi is too brutal, how about Malvivigi
Similarly forpasigi.

jkph00 (Visa profilen) 8 januari 2013 18:33:30

Thank you, everyone. Your suggestions are all helpful, as are your tact and empathy.

Chainy (Visa profilen) 8 januari 2013 22:55:50

sudanglo:I don't see why you shouldn't say Ni iris al la veterinaro por dormigi la katon
yes, I like the use of 'dormigi'. It's pretty clear in context what is meant and it avoids the nasty sounding alternatives!

Russian has 'усыпить' which can be used in this context and it means 'dormigi'. It wouldn't surprise me if other languages also use something similar.

jkph00 (Visa profilen) 9 januari 2013 06:01:05

Chainy:
sudanglo:I don't see why you shouldn't say Ni iris al la veterinaro por dormigi la katon
yes, I like the use of 'dormigi'. It's pretty clear in context what is meant and it avoids the nasty sounding alternatives!

Russian has 'усыпить' which can be used in this context and it means 'dormigi'. It wouldn't surprise me if other languages also use something similar.
Спасибо. Dankon. Thank you.

Chainy (Visa profilen) 9 januari 2013 15:45:18

Timtim:
Similarly forpasigi.
"forpasi" is a very good example of a euphemism in Esperanto. This word is used very often.

hebda999 (Visa profilen) 9 januari 2013 16:00:31

Chainy:Russian has 'усыпить' which can be used in this context and it means 'dormigi'. It wouldn't surprise me if other languages also use something similar.
Polish uses "uśpić kota/psa" or "usypiać kota/psa" = (equivalent to) to put to sleep a cat/dog.

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