Culacino
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Culacino
Interesting word culled from a list of a few months back:
(originally posted by Bailey)
- mark left on the table by a moist glass - CULACINO
[Italian origin]
(originally posted by Bailey)
- mark left on the table by a moist glass - CULACINO
[Italian origin]
-----please, draw me a sheep-----
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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I admit I like this word, but I have to quibble with it a bit. Like so many others of our odd-ball suggestions (sorry, Bailey), it doesn't seem to have left much of a trail behind it. And for a word that implies meaning a trail, that's even worse.
I've tried to track this one down on the Internet, but all I've come up with is the same definition, over and over again. Same wording, same vague (It.) reference. No one anywhere has decided to provide an Italian derivation, and no one has ever provided a pronunciation. (I'm assuming ku-LACH-i-no, but I've been known to be wrong.)
Do we have any Italian speakers out there who might feel inclined to weigh in?
I've tried to track this one down on the Internet, but all I've come up with is the same definition, over and over again. Same wording, same vague (It.) reference. No one anywhere has decided to provide an Italian derivation, and no one has ever provided a pronunciation. (I'm assuming ku-LACH-i-no, but I've been known to be wrong.)
Do we have any Italian speakers out there who might feel inclined to weigh in?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Here's another take on the meaning, with a specific tie to our world here:
Still no word on the pronunciation, though.
CulAchino or CulacIno?
http://www.ilab.org/eng/glossary/eng/132-culacino.htmlA drink-ring or circular stain left when a book is used as a coaster for a drinking glass. A handy Italian term which has no one-word English equivalent (and, from the perspective of book people, one of the most useful terms to be found in Howard Rheingold's entertaining book They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases).
Still no word on the pronunciation, though.
CulAchino or CulacIno?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Culacino
I don't speak Italian, but according to Wikizionario (the Italian version of Wiktionary) culacino has two other meanings also:
1. the end (extremity) of a sausage (the circular cut end, perhaps?);
2. [rare] the bottom of a glass.
Wikizionario says it is the diminutive of culaccio, which apparently means a rump of meat. It does not make the pronunciation clear, but I know that the diminutive suffix ino is normally stressed on the 'i' (compare cappuccino). So I think Luke is probably right about the pronunciation.
1. the end (extremity) of a sausage (the circular cut end, perhaps?);
2. [rare] the bottom of a glass.
Wikizionario says it is the diminutive of culaccio, which apparently means a rump of meat. It does not make the pronunciation clear, but I know that the diminutive suffix ino is normally stressed on the 'i' (compare cappuccino). So I think Luke is probably right about the pronunciation.
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: Culacino
I'm leaning to that pronunciation, too. One question I have is why did culacino lose a c?I don't speak Italian, but according to Wikizionario (the Italian version of Wiktionary) culacino has two other meanings also:
1. the end (extremity) of a sausage (the circular cut end, perhaps?);
2. [rare] the bottom of a glass.
Wikizionario says it is the diminutive of culaccio, which apparently means a rump of meat. It does not make the pronunciation clear, but I know that the diminutive suffix ino is normally stressed on the 'i' (compare cappuccino). So I think Luke is probably right about the pronunciation.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
I'm not a speaker of Italian, but I found the following explanation, which might explain the double c:
In Italian, all consonants except h can be doubled. Double consonants (i consonanti doppie) are pronounced much more forcefully than single consonants. With double f, l, m, n, r, s, and v, the sound is prolonged; with double b, c, d, g, p, and t, the stop is stronger than for the single
consonant.http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare104a.htm
In Italian, all consonants except h can be doubled. Double consonants (i consonanti doppie) are pronounced much more forcefully than single consonants. With double f, l, m, n, r, s, and v, the sound is prolonged; with double b, c, d, g, p, and t, the stop is stronger than for the single
consonant.http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare104a.htm
Ars longa, vita brevis
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 4423
- Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:16 pm
- Location: Land of the Flat Water
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8170
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
Sounds like someone needs a coaster. Interesting etymology, too. Check it out.And they're leaving culacinos on my desk.
Is the "s" plural the way to go, or would Italian prefer an "i"?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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