Howdy --

How many of you are geocachers? I'm interested in Esperanto translations for geocaching terms, but there are some subtleties that seem to get in the way of a literal translation (aren't there always?)...

For example: I asked in another thread (in the Esperanto "Questions" Forum) what the Esperanto word for "geocoin" might be. A suggestion was "terkaŝa ĵetono", which is a good suggestion, given that when we geocoin addicts trade coins, we usually write "game token" on the customs form (if you use the word "coin", it apparently triggers customs reaction, even though geocoins aren't legal tender -- or that's the fear, anyway). So "ĵetono" is a good word.

But the use of "terkaŝa" got me thinking. There are two websites (not the only ones, but the two big ones) that are somewhat in competition with one another: www.geocaching.com and www.terracaching.com. Terracaching is different than geocaching in that the whole process of hiding stuff in Terracaching is more restrictive (the goal, from what I can tell, is to try to regulate high-quality hides).

So it seems to me that there would be two words in Esperanto: "geokaŝado" for "geocaching" and "terkaŝado" for "terracaching". But wait! There's a type of hide in geocaching (on geocaching.com) called an "Earthcache". How to distinguish one of those from a cache established on terracaching.com? (And would you even need to, or just consider both terracaching.com's and geocaching.com's hides "geocaches"?)

Also, geocaching itself is split up into two major activities (insofar as caches are concerned): hiding them, and finding them. So you could, I suppose, be involved in "geoĉasado" or "geokaŝado"...

I'm confusing myself. Perhaps I should start with the basics and say to my fellow geocachers: do you use Esperanto in your cache pages, your bug/coin pages, or your logs? What Esperanto words do you use? What do you use for:

- geocaching
- cache
- geocoin
- muggle
- travel bug

I'm thinking:

- geokaŝado
- kaŝujo
- geoĵetono
- malkaŝanto / malkaŝisto
- vojaĝcimo

Do you use other Esperanto words or phrases?

-- Kat aka Jackalgirl

There was just a discussion about a few related terms in the yahoogroup [tradukado] which might interest you.

The thread started here, I believe:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/tradukado/messa...

Looking up the term using google and wiki, I was struck at the resemblance of this activity to tradecraft used by clandestine agents, as described in books like KGB by John Barron or films like Family of spies (about the Walker family). The difference being of course that the locations of 'drops' used by spies are not intended to be found out.

Miland:Looking up the term using google and wiki, I was struck at the resemblance of this activity to tradecraft used by clandestine agents, as described in books like KGB by John Barron or films like Family of spies (about the Walker family). The difference being of course that the locations of 'drops' used by spies are not intended to be found out.

You might be interested in a related -- but somewhat more obscure -- "game" called "letterboxing". In traditional letterboxing, a box with a log book and stamp is hidden somewhere, and you find your way to it by means of clues (rather than having a lat & long and using GPS). You're supposed to have your own individual stamp, and you stamp the log, then stamp your own personal letterboxing log with the letterbox's stamp. (Basically.)

In geocaching, there's a type of cache called a "letterbox hybrid" -- it's a regular cache (in that its coordinates are posted) but it also contains a cache stamp that letterboxers can use to stamp their personal logs.

russ:There was just a discussion about a few related terms in the yahoogroup [tradukado] which might interest you.

The thread started here, I believe:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/tradukado/messa...

Thank you for the link! I'm currently wading through it (I'm somewhere between beginner and intermediate in Esperanto) and do appreciate the gouge!