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Subject: Re: List is crafty (with a small c) (not correct! crafty is Hinterlist!)

Author: Mike S.

Date: 15:17:14 12/12/02

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On December 12, 2002 at 13:33:40, Mike Hood wrote:

>(...)
>"crafty" and "cunning" are very close words in the English language. Both of
>them carry a hint of betrayal, but neither are as strong as the German word
>"hinterlistig". I would translate both "cunning" and "crafty" as "listig",
>unless the context showed that "hinterlistig" is appropriate.

Although I assume it wasn't meant when giving the name to the chess engine,
"List" in german has also the other (smiple) meaning of list, like in checklist,
IOW. a series of written lines like

>Even though I was born in England, I find that the German language has
>subtleties of meaning that are difficult to express in English.

What's probably most difficult is, that some words have 2 or 3 completely
different meanings, like List. For example, for some strange reason we say
"Geschoss" not only for a projectile which is fired from a cannon, but also - in
some regions more than in other i guess - for the floors of a building. Very
common is i.e. "Erdgeschoss" for the ground floor. That's not a weapon for
ground combat, but the lowest part of a house... (except the cellar :o)).

These type of word must be the typical Babelfish killers.

>The famous
>example is the totally untranslatable word "gemütlich", but there are other
>examples.

gemütlich = jolly comfortable :o)

Regards,
M.Scheidl



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