Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: A yard widget

Dear Realmers,
"He nodded his head like a wind-driven *yard widget*".
Come spesso succede, mi pare di intravedere un'immagine (seppure alquanto
sfocata) di quanto l'autore ha voluto dire, ma quello che mi occorre,
purtroppo, č una traduzione...
Un "aggeggio da cortile azionato dal vento"? Cos'č? Magari uno di quegli
uccellini di legno che vanno a becchettare ritmicamente in un ciotolino? O
sono completamente fuori strada?
Aěta!
--
Ciao
Anna

 Anna
widget = coso
qualcosa non nominato, per discussioni ipotetiche
-- 
Dale Erwin
http://home.earthlink.net/~erwintech

 ha scritto nel messaggio
news:3B5CA58E...@earthlink.net...
widget = coso
<Ho fatto una ricerca in rete e la parola è spesso associata alle yard sales
quindi insiememe con la risposta di Dale dovrebbe essere una qualsiasi
cianfrusaglia che ti ritrovi in giardino , in garage o per casa.
Yours
Sal

purtroppo, è
una traduzione...
You do seem to be translating something interesting.
Tell me, are you in this instance translating from British englisch or
American English?
First I thought your widget might be one of those
hoops set up to play croquet, but then I found that these are called
wickets, not widgets. Anyway, they are placed too low to be compared to a
head, and have no joint that could make them look like a nodding head, and
would seem to offer insufficient resistance to the wind to make them "nod".
What the deuce could a yard widget be? It sounds too specific to be an
unnamed "coso" or "aggegio". I'll cogitate this puzzle some more and see if
I can come up with anything, but don't hold your breath.
--
Xakero
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://usenet.iol.it
 

 I can come up with anything, but don't hold your breath.
Aaaahhh... What a relief! :-)
Grazie,
Anna speranzosa

 cianfrusaglia che ti ritrovi in giardino , in garage o per casa.
Grazie assai per la ricerca, ma che tipo di cianfrusaglia può essere secondo
voi quella "wind-driven" che "nods its head"?
--
Ciao
Anna

 sono completamente fuori strada?
yard = The grounds either in front or behind a house.
widget = A generic term for a manufactured device. Its most common usage is to
represent something produced by a factory for purposes of a math problem posed
to be solved. It is purposely vague since the type of object produced is
irrelevant--only the quantity produced is important.
A "yard widget" is a type of lawn ornament. There are many different types. They
are typically made of wood or plastic and they sit on poles that are stuck in
the ground. The action of the wind moves a part of the object. The action is
usually staccato because of the simple design of the device. Thus, someone who
nodded his head like a wind-driven yard widget would jerk his head up and down
in a mechanical way. Indeed the action would be like the uccellini di legno that
you described, but the object in question sits outside on a lawn and is acted
upon by the wind.
Ciao,
Ron
USA

Tell me, are you in this instance translating from British englisch...
Ver iz no such zing as British Englisch anymore, dah-link :-)
-- 
Isa
Work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching
http://web.tiscalinet.it/alfabeto_auschwitz/

 stuck in the ground. The action of the wind moves a part of the object.
--snip--
Lo sapevo, che mi avresti aiutato a mettere a fuoco!
Grazie galore :-))
Anna

Ver iz no such zing as British Englisch anymore, dah-link :-)
Can't
quite figure out what accent you were trying to imitate. French? Don't do
that to me, please! I still haven't fully recovered from a week of
listening to Japanese speaking English.
Didn't run that one through the
spell checker, but I guess you know it should have read "British English".
One of the more harmless typing errors I make now and then. You should see
some of the others!
If you’re saying that there is no longer such thing
as "British English"”, what is today's politically correct term? You would
like "Queen's English", I wager, but I haven't seen that one used for
decades.
In Office 2000, Microsoft calls it English (U.K.), but if my
memory serves me right it was British English in Office 97 or the version
before that. I'm always slow in adopting those newfangled terms.


as "British English",...
God forbid. Long may it live and caress my eardrums.


 Xakero
They (Windows)  used to call it "International English" but perhaps
someone objected to the status thus given it. I'd be interested in a
Kiwi English version with its idiosyncratic grammar checker. :-)))
Loki