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How to best express "to shimmy" in Esp?

by robbkvasnak, January 24, 2016

Messages: 48

Language: English

Vestitor (User's profile) June 20, 2016, 12:49:54 AM

Rubbish.

thyrolf (User's profile) June 20, 2016, 8:18:24 AM

robbkvasnak:He shimmied up the tree -
any suggestions?
li koksumante grimpis la arbon?

mkj1887 (User's profile) June 20, 2016, 11:36:14 AM

Vestitor:Rubbish.
You prate, and speak arrogantly, but I have rendered you nearly speechless. Has anyone matched my record?

Vestitor (User's profile) June 20, 2016, 12:48:39 PM

mkj1887:
Vestitor:Rubbish.
You prate, and speak arrogantly, but I have rendered you nearly speechless. Has anyone matched my record?
Irony perhaps?

vejktoro (User's profile) June 22, 2016, 5:22:49 AM

mkj1887:
Vestitor:Rubbish.
You prate, and speak arrogantly, but I have rendered you nearly speechless. Has anyone matched my record?
Prate is a word in my dialect I didn't know existed in the US. How do you pronounce it, and what do you mean when you say it?

vejktoro (User's profile) June 22, 2016, 5:52:29 AM

Nevermind. Googled it. Not quite the same but close. I dear say that I might declare that Vestitor got some prate on him, meaning he likes to talk, and is a rather good talker. The value judgement on the content of the prate is left to the beholder in my dialect.

I know this thread is about scampering up an old tree, but before we go back, can you tell me is your word 'prate' common, academic, or purely dictionary speak.

Miland (User's profile) June 22, 2016, 7:22:55 AM

"Prate" has been around for over a century. It occurs in the famous poem by John Godfrey Saxe The Blind Men and the Elephant - see the last two lines of the last verse. I note that the first line of this verse uses "oft", not "always". It means talking foolishly or at boring length about something. I'm not sure whether balbuti is used much in Esperanto in this sense, or we would use something like prelegi/paroladi tede. Any opinions?

Vestitor (User's profile) June 22, 2016, 10:00:05 AM

I'd say the diminutive 'prattle' is now more common.

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