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  2. Da Italiano a Inglese
  3. Linguaggio gergale, Slang

capo di minghe

Inglese translation: dickhead

VOCE DI GLOSSARIO (PRELEVATA DALLA DOMANDA QUI SOTTO)
Termine o frase Italiano:capo di minghe
Traduzione in Inglese:dickhead
Inserita da: Alexander Taguiltsev

10:23 Nov 26, 2005
Traduzioni da Italiano a Inglese [PRO]
Art/Literary - Linguaggio gergale, Slang
Termine o frase Italiano: capo di minghe
"Besides which," Cesare put in, "she's so big."
The Gaucho clenched one fist. "How big."
"175 by 279 centimeters," admitted Signor Mantissa.
"Capo di minghe!" the Gaucho sat back, shaking his head. With an obvious effort at controlling his temper, he addressed Signor Mantissa. "I'm not a small man,"...

This is from Thomas Pynchon's "V" - chapter seven ("She hangs on the western wall"), towards the end of section II (a couple of pages before its end in my 1963 Viking UK paperback edition)

To my Italian ear, this sounds like a "pynchonesque" deformation of the semi-dialectal Italian insult / swear word "Testa di minchia" - an opinion reinforced by the Florentine setting of the scene and by the association of the Gaucho with Argentine (Borges must have said something to the effect that an Argentinian is an Italian who speaks Spanish and dreams himself an Englishman... IIRC).

I'm not quite sure this is the right language or language combination for the question, but I'd like to have opinions from native English speakers, and especially from Americans with some Italian, or Spanish; but everybody is welcome to contribute...

This is not for paid work on Pynchon's novel, unfortunately, in case someone was wondering - just a personal curiosity
Alfredo Tutino
Local time: 17:15
dickhead
Spiegazione:
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:ZqsGjU-kHhwJ:www.hyperar...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 53 mins (2005-11-26 11:17:38 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Italian (southern): "dick" (i.e., "penis"); also used as a general profane exclamation, similar to how "shit" is used; "Capo di minghe!" ("dickhead!"), 164; "Minghe" 166;
Risposta fornita da:

Alexander Taguiltsev
Russia
Local time: 18:15
Grading comment
Thank you for the site!
I still wonder somehow, not about the sense, but about the way Pybnchon might have picked up (at least) some Italian, because: 1) minghe is not a common pronunciation for "minchia" in any southern or northern Italian dialect that I know of; 2) "Capo" for "head" is rather learned usage
I was dimly hoping for input from Americans of Italian origin, I guess (this is why I originally posted this in EN>EN). But none of this makes your contribution any less welcome, of course.
A questa risposta sono stati assegnati 4 punti KudoZ



Riepilogo di tutte le risposte fornite
3 +4dickhead
Alexander Taguiltsev


  

Risposte


51 min   Affidabilità: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 approvazioni dei colleghi (rete) +4
dickhead


Spiegazione:
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:ZqsGjU-kHhwJ:www.hyperar...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 53 mins (2005-11-26 11:17:38 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Italian (southern): "dick" (i.e., "penis"); also used as a general profane exclamation, similar to how "shit" is used; "Capo di minghe!" ("dickhead!"), 164; "Minghe" 166;

Alexander Taguiltsev
Russia
Local time: 18:15
Madrelingua: Russo
Punti PRO nella categoria: 4
Grading comment
Thank you for the site!
I still wonder somehow, not about the sense, but about the way Pybnchon might have picked up (at least) some Italian, because: 1) minghe is not a common pronunciation for "minchia" in any southern or northern Italian dialect that I know of; 2) "Capo" for "head" is rather learned usage
I was dimly hoping for input from Americans of Italian origin, I guess (this is why I originally posted this in EN>EN). But none of this makes your contribution any less welcome, of course.

Commenti dei colleghi su questa risposta (e interventi di chi ha risposto)
accordo  Franco Rigoni
18 min
  -> Thanks.
accordo  Dave Calderhead: Sounds about right!
27 min
  -> Thanks.
accordo  John Walsh
8 ore
  -> THank you
accordo  Romanian Translator (X)
1 giorno 13 ore
  -> Thank you.
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