Französisch: à la mords-moi-le-noeudEnglisch translation: bloody stupid/idiotic/nonsensical/rubbish, etc. 
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| Glossareintrag (aus Frage unten abgeleitet) | | Französisch Begriff oder Satz: | à la mords-moi-le-noeud | | Englisch Übersetzung: | bloody stupid/idiotic/nonsensical/rubbish, etc. | | Eingetragen von: | French Foodie |
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Übersetzungen Französisch > Englisch [PRO]
Slang / expression | | Französisch Begriff oder Satz: à la mords-moi-le-noeud | I saw this in the French-Polish pair, but alas that doesn't help me much :-)
I checked "may be offensive" because I'm trying to figure out just how strong this expression is. Not in the Petit Robert. I tried googling and found it used mainly in blogs, so...
I understand what the speaker in the passage below is driving at, but I'd like the nuances of it. The speaker also uses "con" later on, so he does not hold back when choosing his words.
"Je me suis retrouvé l’autre jour à Val Thorens et il y avait une pancarte, grande comme ça avec des pistes et à un moment donné il y avait une pancarte qui disait si vous avez le pass jaune, vous devez prendre à gauche parce que si vous prenez à droite, vous ne pourrez plus prendre les remontées mécaniques, etc, une explication à la mords moi le nœud qui était marquée en 3 langues mais pas en japonais ni en chinois, bien entendu, mais en 3 langues, je suis resté devant cette pancarte et je me suis dit mais qu’est-ce que je fais maintenant, je tourne à gauche ou je tourne à droite et je ne comprenais rien, je n’ai toujours rien compris, je trouve ça extraordinaire." |
| | Notiz(en) an den/des Fragesteller(s)French Foodie (asker): 5:24pm Aug 7, 2005: OK, thanks Estelle and Flo. I was heading towards "infuriating", but I see it is more along the lines of "bloody stupid" or "bloody ridiculous". Do you think that gets the right register across?
Carolingua: 7:43pm Aug 7, 2005: Depending on your audience..."bloody" is British. But that's the thing about slang--there is no "universal" slang--it depends on your audience (i.e. place, generation, etc.) -
French Foodie (asker): 9:07am Aug 8, 2005: Hi Carolingua, I like "whacked" as well (it's probably the word I would use :-), but what I didn't mention is that this is a 71-year-old man talking. A fiesty man, mind you, who makes no bones about swearing to drive a point home. For example, he's the CEO of a major hotel group in France, and during a meeting with several other CEOs on how they could promote tourism in France, he actually told one of the other men that his idea was "con". I like incomprehensible and inept, for I think they get the meaning across, but I also think this man would have then used the word incomprehensible in French. He deliberately chose a different register, which is what I'm trying to match.
The audience is not specifically US or UK - "international English".
Estelle Demontrond-Box: 9:25am Aug 8, 2005: I agree and stick to "nonsensical" or why not "rubbish"... (to be on a closer register) -
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| | stupid / idiotic | Erklärung:
as in 'une explication à la con'
Both are pretty vulgar, but commonly used by some people...
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Note added at 42 mins (2005-08-07 17:43:47 GMT)
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Yep, \'bloody stupid\' sounds good!
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Note added at 18 hrs 6 mins (2005-08-08 11:07:06 GMT)
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\'what I didn\'t mention is that this is a 71-year-old man talking [...], CEO of a major hotel group\' Shocking!! In this context, I can\'t help thinking that \'mords-moi...\' acquires a much stronger meaning |
| Ausgewählte Antwort von:
 Flo in London
Vereinigtes Königreich
| Hinweis von Fragesteller an den AntwortendenMany thanks to all of you. I think most of your suggestions would work. In this case, bloody stupid, or bullshit explanation really works with this particular person's personality. Wish I could split points among you all!
4 KudoZ-Punkte wurden für diese Antwort vergeben |
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7 Min. Antwortsicherheit:  Zustimmung (Netto): +3 |
| Incomprehensible
Erklärung:
It is not so strong an expression as such, though the origin is: it means (literally) "Bite-my-d***", "noeud" being an old slang form for "penis".
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Note added at 27 mins (2005-08-07 17:28:11 GMT)
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I would not say \"ridiculous\" but rather \"nonsensical\"
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The translation workplace 
