English "Now what?" and "bottomfeeder" into Esperanto?
ca, kivuye
Ubutumwa 37
ururimi: English
darkweasel (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 9 Rusama 2011 18:57:40
qwertz (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 9 Rusama 2011 19:08:35
jkph00:Ahh, I still heard about that word.
Thank you! That's remarkably helpful. The German "Widerling" is precisely the sense I was looking for. "Aĉulo" is certainly accurate, ...
Aĉulo (kantaro.ikso.net) 
BlackOtaku (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 9 Rusama 2011 19:24:45
erinja:Interesting note - I recently had a couple of Esperanto meetings by Skype. I noticed that a lot of fluent Esperanto speakers use "cxu ne" as a filler expression while talking; it seems really widespread. Has anyone else noticed this? I do it myself sometimes and I never really noticed it but when you get a bunch of fluent people together to have a planning meeting, it became really obvious.I knew that using 'ĉu ne?' at the end of a sentence was like using 'right?' or 'no?' at the end of a sentence; for instance, 'You know what you have to do, right?' would be 'Vi scias, kio vi bezonas fari, ĉu ne?' Are you saying that it also can act as a sort of 'um,' or 'like,' type filler-phrase?
"Oni ne povas cxiam scii, cxu ne, cxu cxiuj jam alvenis. Oni devas registri la alvenon, cxu ne, de cxiu persono, kaj tiam eblos scii kiam cxiuj cxeestas"
[I just made that up as a random piece of conversation using "cxu ne" as filler; "You can't always know, right, whether everyone has arrived yet. You have to record the arrival, right, of every person, and then it'll be possible to know when everyone is present"]
erinja (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 9 Rusama 2011 19:39:00
BlackOtaku:I knew that using 'ĉu ne?' at the end of a sentence was like using 'right?' or 'no?' at the end of a sentence; for instance, 'You know what you have to do, right?' would be 'Vi scias, kio vi bezonas fari, ĉu ne?' Are you saying that it also can act as a sort of 'um,' or 'like,' type filler-phrase?I have it heard it functioning as a filler phrase like "like". Totally separate from "Ĉu ne?" at the end of a sentence.
Miland (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 9 Rusama 2011 20:05:33
darkweasel:That also sounds quite suitable.Miland:I often use kaj do? for this meaning.jkph00: "Now what?"If the intended sense of this is "So what?" I would suggest Kio, do?
Kraughne (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 9 Rusama 2011 21:14:53
ceigered (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 10 Rusama 2011 06:23:36
Kraughne:"Now what?" in English has the sense of "Where do we go from here?" So to translate this feeling in Esperanto I would say, "Kio de nun?" (lit.: "What from now?").I don't think that's quite sounding right (although I like the direction of where that's going) coz it sounds a bit clunky.
"Now what" seems to be sort of a cross between "Now what is supposed to happen" which "kaj do..." does well, and "Now what do we do?" sound good as "nun kio/kio nun?" to me.
RE Bottomfeeder, how's "demizer(a )(gajnulo/gajnanto/komercisto)"? I thought "misery merchant" sounded cool but then realised that it could translate possibly as a merchant who "provides" misery rather than profiting from it. Other things give the sense of a sort of silver-lining scenario (every cloud has a silver lining = every problem/mishap has a benefit). Which could be fixed with -aĉ, but aĉ adds syllables and makes the "nastiness" too literal. But I guess perhaps the ambiguity relates to the moral ambiguity (e.g. is benefiting from the misery of others really bad if A) that person didn't cause the misery, and B) can't do anything to fix the problem anyway, and C) you might as well turn a bad situation around even if you can't do it for everyone).
EDIT: I found this definition too:
"leech, or in other words a total lack of responsibility to provide for oneself. Relies heavily upon friends, neighbors or anyone really for sustenance. a slacker through and through.
Bart wakes up and thinks to himself, "dang, i dont have any money still" so he leaves his wallet at home on purpose and later says to his friends, "Whoops, I forgot my wallet today again, could you please buy my lunch again?" what a bottom feeder."
(from urban dictionary)
Alongside a definition equivalent to "basement dweller".
Seems like a very capitalist phrase, I don't recall hearing it here before.
3rdblade (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 10 Rusama 2011 08:58:16
jkph00:Hey!'Kio nun?' is what I'd do with for the first one, but the suggestions of the others here seem pretty good.
A beginner here. Would "Cû nune kio?" translate "Now what?", and would "defundmanĝanto" translate "bottom feeder?"
Warmest thanks in advance for any help. I hope soon to be able to return the favor.
'Bottom feeder' I didn't know straight away, I'd heard it but didn't really know the exact meaning. I saw in my mind a catfish. I've seen two definitions just now, either a person who profits from the misery of others, or a person who profits from things cast off or left over by others. The second one sounds more catfishy to me. How about 'rubulo' (rubbish-guy) or 'fekulo' if you're feeling less charitable.
'Sentaŭgulo' translates as 'ne'er do well'. I like both words!
'Hand-me-down' (your big brother's shoes handed down to you, for example, for the non-native English speakers here!). Try these on for size, but you might have to grow into them: 'subdonaĵo', 'fratvestintaĵo'.
sudanglo (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 10 Rusama 2011 10:25:02
NPIV gives a couple of non-biological/metaphorical definitions for this word including 'tiu, kiu kvazau profesie manĝas konstante ĉe fremda tablo'.
I like 'Kio nun' for the exasperated use of 'Now what?' (you have bothered me several times, what do you want now). More explicitly that would be Kion vi volas nun.
For the sense of 'What next', I like 'Kaj nun?' or 'Do, nun'?
Miland (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 10 Rusama 2011 10:49:29
ceigered:.."nun kio/kio nun?" to me..Sounds OK to me as well!