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Translation of 'mayhem'

de Sphynx, 3 noiembrie 2015

Contribuții/Mesaje: 11

Limbă: English

Sphynx (Arată profil) 3 noiembrie 2015, 18:31:56

OK, one of those words that has a lot of comparisons in a thesaurus but has subtle insinuations of its own. Unless I'm missing something obvious however, I can't find an exact match.

Closest i've come across in regards to actual meaning is 'mal-ord-eg-o', promoting malordo to something a little more serious.

Would you agree? Any better offers?

Ideally it needs to be an 'm' word as it's a direct translation of a logo/slogan that depends on the same initial letter (though obviously in this case, anything beginning mal- is going to qualify regardless), which is why I ruled our kaoso.

Christa627 (Arată profil) 3 noiembrie 2015, 20:01:09

"Tohuvabohuo" has essentially the same meaning, but doesn't start with m.

Sphynx (Arată profil) 3 noiembrie 2015, 20:07:06

Thanks. I suspect that even with the different initial we would need to rule that one out due to complexity and length in the context required. There is a good chance it would be on business cards and such like.

bayu (Arată profil) 3 noiembrie 2015, 20:16:38

Christa627:"Tohuvabohuo" has essentially the same meaning, but doesn't start with m.
I had the same idea. Its litteral translation "senforma kaj malplena" has at least an m in the middle.

Sphynx (Arată profil) 3 noiembrie 2015, 21:09:51

Wouldn't mutili -> mutilo not translate as 'a mutilation' rather than mayhem?

erinja (Arată profil) 3 noiembrie 2015, 21:44:13

The colloquial meaning for mayhem doesn't mean mutilation, though.

I think that if you wanted a single starting letter, you might fit a t into the middle of an m, perhaps in a different color, to get tohuvabohuo into mayhem.

However, I'm a firm believer that translations of names don't need to be a direct, exact translation. I think "Malordo" would be a fine name, if you're looking for something of similar length, starting with an m.

Sphynx (Arată profil) 3 noiembrie 2015, 22:19:41

Yes, I tend to agree. Here in the UK, mayhem would relate more to an unctrolled disturbance or riot and not an attack in the way being defined there. Using Multilo would be way too strong for the audience involved.

I suspect that we'll stick with malordo, at most malordego. It's the right length and strength I think.

Many thanks to all contributors.

Vestitor (Arată profil) 4 noiembrie 2015, 00:28:21

As recent as the 1960s (in Britain at least) mayhem was still used in the way Roch indicates, but mixed with the idea of chaotic uproar. I just finished reading the Kenneth Williams letters and he uses it like that, often using the phrase 'murder and mayhem' as a unit...it also occurs in his last diary entry. I also encountered it in Graham Greene's autobiography.

sudanglo (Arată profil) 4 noiembrie 2015, 12:56:39

According to my Shorter OED 'maim' comes from old French and English words of similar form to mayhem.

My Collins Dictionary gives a legal meaning as well as any violent disorder or destruction.

Benson gives vundado, perfortado, tumultado - of those tumultado seems closest to the non legal meaning.

Mayhem - violenta ĥaoso

What is the logo/slogan you are trying to translate?

Sphynx (Arată profil) 4 noiembrie 2015, 13:06:47

TBH, I can't say right now as it's not been signed off. The word is used in isolation however, so a phrase context is not overly important but the 'violent disorder or destruction' definition is how I think that most people would interpret it in common usage.

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