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Traduce

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:48 pm
by Dr. Goodword

• traduce •

Pronunciation: trê-dus or -dyusHear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: 1. To humiliate someone by falsely maligning them. 2. To violate, trample, betray, as to traduce the law

Notes: Today's word began its English life meaning "to convey from one place to another" or "translate". All that was in the past. Today this word is used only in the senses given above. The abstract noun for this verb, as we might expect, is traduction, but one instance of traduction is a traducement. Someone who traduces is a traducer.

In Play: Freedom of the press means the right to traduce whomever you so desire: "Siddy Hall was thoroughly traduced in the news when she proposed a ban on products containing sugar throughout New Monia county." Should such an ordinance be passed, critics claim, it would certainly be traduced by everyone.

Word History: Today's Good Word is the descendant of Latin traducere, whose meaning, over time, migrated from "lead along or across, bring through, transfer" to "change over, convert" to "lead in parade, make a show of" to "dishonor, disgrace". It came originally from trans- "across" + ducere "to lead", the origin of English duke. Latin tran(s) comes from the same source as English through, thorough, and thrill. I hear you saying, "Thrill!?" Yes, thrill, which only recently came to its current meaning. In Old and Middle English it meant "hole", from thrillen "to pierce, go though". A thrill was historically considered a piercing, something emotionally charged. "She got a thrill out of that" originally meant "it pierced her". Nostril in some dialects of English is still a nose-thirl "nose-hole". (Our old friend Lew Jury proposed today's Good Word years ago; it would be a traducement of our long tradition if were I to forget to thank him for it.)

Re: Traduce

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:29 am
by David Myer
Most interesting. And if thrill is all to do with holes (originally, anyway) presumably it is directly related to drill?

Re: Traduce

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2014 1:44 pm
by LukeJavan8
Indeed, the history and use of words today from it are
amazing.

Re: Traduce

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 2:51 am
by misterdoe
I read once, in an article about false cognates, about an Italian boy approaching an English-speaking visitor and saying, "Mister, I will traduce for you." I've read also there's an Italian expression, "Traduttore, tradittore," or "a translator is a traitor."

Re: Traduce

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 12:53 pm
by LukeJavan8
....things do get lost in translation.