halberd
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- Grand Panjandrum
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halberd
Languages rule!
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Grand Panjandrum
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In Dutch it's indeed "hellebaard", Middle Dutch "hellebaerde", "helmbaerde", 'helm' meaning 'steel' (+/- pole, long stick) and ba(e)rde meaning 'axe'.Swedish «hillebard», Danish «hellebard» ; variations of same in German, Dutch, etc. French «hallebarde», Italian «alabarda»....
Possible cognates of "baerde" are Gr. "perthein" ('to destroy, to kill') and Old Irish "brissim" ('i break').
Frank
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Italian alabarda has taken me to Portuguese/Spanish/Catalan alabarda and Romanian halebardă . There's even a Portuguese expression, passar pelas alabardas: castigo militar que consistia em carregar de alabardas o soldado que faltava à disciplina, which means pass through the halberds: military punishment that consisted in carrying on halberds the soldier that had not attended discipline (very rough translation).
Thank you, Henri.
Brazilian dude
Thank you, Henri.
Brazilian dude
Languages rule!
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- Grand Panjandrum
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BD, reading the Portuguese sentence as if it were a sort of dialectal Italian, I came to an alternative translation, viz, «... military punishment consisting of loading a soldier guilty of a disciplinary infraction down with halbards» (i e, forcing him to carry a great many of the weapons, which must have been extremely heavy). Is this a possible interpretation, and if so, how can one disambiguate between the two ? (Riding on halbards, so long as one didn't have the points of the weapons stuck up one's anatomy, would seem to me less a trial for the rider than for his comrades who presumably bore him.)
Henri
Henri
Last edited by M. Henri Day on Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?
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- Grand Panjandrum
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I'm neither a Portuguese scholar nor a military scholar, but I believe the standard translation would involve the gerund form, i.e. passing [back or up] the halberds -- which I would loosely translate as passing all the heavy stuff to the new guy (or to the guy who's been causing the most problems lately).
This type of initiation rite is common still today in many groups, isn't it? Standard psychological (read: demeaning) attempt to train someone...
-Tim
This type of initiation rite is common still today in many groups, isn't it? Standard psychological (read: demeaning) attempt to train someone...
-Tim
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- Grand Panjandrum
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I'm amazed at Henri and Tim. I wasn't able to arrive at the same conclusion myself because of the verb carregar. I kept thinking of carregar like transportar and imagined people carrying soldiers around with their backs pricked by halberds, but that preposition de proved a stumbling block to me, which, in my view, would have to be changed to com. Now carregar alguém de algo does have the meaning that both Tim and Henri gave, of imposing something on someone. How can I have been so stupid? For a while I thought that the text had been badly written. It looks as if my brain has been badly wired.as passing all the heavy stuff to the new guy (or to the guy who's been causing the most problems lately).
Brazilian dude
Languages rule!
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Grand Panjandrum
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I read this as a form of running the gauntlet, although I like the other suggestions, too.Italian alabarda has taken me to Portuguese/Spanish/Catalan alabarda and Romanian halebardă . There's even a Portuguese expression, passar pelas alabardas: castigo militar que consistia em carregar de alabardas o soldado que faltava à disciplina, which means pass through the halberds: military punishment that consisted in carrying on halberds the soldier that had not attended discipline (very rough translation).
Thank you, Henri.
Brazilian dude
-gailr
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- Grand Panjandrum
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But that would make it difficult to understand the use of the verb «carregar» (to load or load down), unless it's employed here metaphorically. Of course, one could imagine a line of fellow soldiers which the erring soldier had to pass, every soldier in the line giving another halberd to bear until he collapsed under the weight or made it through. But whacking him with the things would seem, as I said, out of place. Perhaps BD could investigate further ?......
I read this as a form of running the gauntlet, although I like the other suggestions, too.
-gailr
Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?
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