Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: fare una figura di...

Appurato che "to cut a bad figure" non lo dice nessuno, c'� 
un'espressione equivalente a "fare una brutta figura", o anche "figura 
di m..."?  To make a fool of oneself? altro?
Thanks!
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.

 di m..."? To make a fool of oneself? altro?
I've always heard 'fare una brutta figura' translated as 'to make a bad 
impression.' English does not use 'figure' in the same way 'figura' is 
used in Italian. As far as 'figura di m...' goes, you can also say 'a 
sh.... impression,' if you take some care regarding to whom you say it.
If you're going to be discrete about how you write certain Italian 
words, I suppose I should do the same in English in return.

 words, I suppose I should do the same in English in return.
Ok, no more censorship.
;-)
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.


S�, in quel contesto il signifcato � diverso. In Inglese si dice "you 
looked like' o 'you seemed' o 'you made of yourself' con una parola 
adatta di derisione.
Hahaha, what a fool you made of yourself!
Hahaha, you must'a looked like a jerk (an idiot)!
Hahaha, what a laughingstock you must have been!
Allora, a scuola l'hai fatto tu?
Of course, I would have said, "what a citrul!

 wrote in message 
news:hkieqq$jua$1...@news.eternal-september.org...

I always thought it was "jadrool".
�And then hey jadrool!
You donna have to go to school
Just make-a wid da beat-a bambino,
it's-a like a vino
Kid you're good-a-lookin'
but you don't know what's cookin,
till you
Hey Mambo! Mambo Italiano!�
Rosemary Clooney, "Mambo Italiano"
http://www.rosemaryclooney.com/LyricPages/MamboItaliano.html
Joe from Massachusetts 


�ｿｽThe biggest radio ruckus was caused by ABC's Disk Jockey Martin Block who 
virtuously announced that he would no longer play Columbia Records' Mambo 
Italiano. Reason: he had been told that some Sicilian words in the lyrics, 
particularly the word for "cucumber" (spelled phonetically in the lyrics as 
"jadrool"), had a dirty meaning. Mitch Miller at Columbia Records promptly 
produced letters from an Italian-American priest and a professor of 
languages at New York University denying that the vernacular words used in 
the song "could possibly be construed as offensive to anyone." At week's end 
Block, still sticking by his ban, explained: "The lyrics are only wrong to 
people who know dirty, low-down slang. In high-class society, 'jadrool' 
might just mean knuckle-head."�ｿｽ
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,857743-2,00.html
Joe from Massachusetts 

 
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,857743-2,00.html
However one decides to phonetically spell it, If I remember correctly 
from an explanation by Anna or some other long-time frequenter of this 
newsgroup, the dialect is Napoletano, not Siciliano, and the meaning 
does not derive from the word 'cetriolo'.

Tony The Ice Man ha scritto:

Forse � sia napoletano che siciliano (spesso i due dialetti hanno delle 
parole in comune). Significa cetriolo ma anche knucle-head, quindi non � 
molto offensivo, anche se l'allusione sessuale � dietro l'angolo.

 molto offensivo, anche se l'allusione sessuale ï¿œ dietro l'angolo.
I must agree. In my American/Sicilian-Calabrese family it was heard often 
(mostly directed at me :-(  ) and when I asked what the word meant, I was 
told "cucumber, but it means you're not too bright."
-- 
Joe/Joey da New York
English as she is spoken (and sometimes written) in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke

 told "cucumber, but it means you're not too bright."
Also, when my mother called me one, she said it meant cucumber, and she 
spoke a facsimile of Napoletano. But then, all the dialects mixed 
together in the Italian-American community where I grew up.
However, Anna Martini (I believe it was her), seemed very sure of 
herself when she corrected me, some odd years ago, and said that the 
origin was different than cetriolo. I trust Anna's knowledge of Italian 
more than I do my mother's. Mymo and she will have to slug it out.

 Mymo and she will have to slug it out.
Posso solo dire che da napoletano sento spesso la parola 'citrul' usata 
nel modo descritto (knucklehead). C'ï¿œ invece un modo di dire in cui la 
parola assume una connotazione sessuale, ed ï¿œ l'unico caso che conosco 
(ma non riporto il proverbio per decoro). Non posso escludere ovviamente 
che abbia altri usi in altri dialetti del sud italia...


On reflection, to correct the perpetual internet record, and in fairness 
to my mother who was not one to engage in gratuitous insults, the one 
time my mother used that word regarding me, it was not to call me one, 
but to warn me that if I didn't follow her suggestion at the time, I was 
in danger of "looking like" one at a particular predicted event in the 
future. By an exercise of good judgment, however, I managed to avoid 
that dreaded event, and remain to this day, free of any motherly 
identification with that label.

 
Boy, does that sound familiar.
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