Category / Language

by Kilby

Bikini Appliances


Although they were invented in the 1940s, household microwave ovens did not become widespread until the mid 1970s, but I know for certain that I’ve been using the verb “nuke” (as a synonym for “cook in a microwave“) for at least four decades, because I vividly remember the puzzlement it caused for a friend’s son in the early 1980s. I find it somewhat surprising that the term could become so commonly accepted in less than a decade, but thinking back, this may be the very first time that I have ever seen the word “nuke” used in this sense in printed (albeit comic) form.

by EditorM

2. infected with measles, as an animal or its flesh.

There are some who object to shrimp scampi on the grounds that it is somewhat a translated-redundancy; based on

scampi

/ ˈskæm pi, ˈskɑm- /

noun,plural scam·pi.Italian Cooking.

  1. a large shrimp or prawn.

but then there is 2. a dish of shrimp or prawns grilled or sautéed in oil or butter and garlic, which is what we want shrimp scampi to mean.

by EditorM

Bonus – cómica extra

Parallel to our question for Baldo, but probably with opposite conclusion, this pair suggests confirmation that for Macanudo the Spanish version comes first and the English results from translation.

The humor is from, well first of all the behaviors of the two species, but after that the creative way the suffixes are used in the Spanish. (I don’t think the -ota is entirely standard. but is creatively deployed to convey “large”. Comments welcome from experts and fluent or native speakers!)

by EditorM

These are not the ginks you’re looking for

McEldowney’s meaning for gink must be quite different from the one I am most familiar with!

The Urban Dictionary of course gives some dozen unrelated entries of varying plausibility, some of which could work in this cartoon context. (But none of which are exactly mine.) The slang section of dictionary.com is more sober, but the main American entry could work with the cartoon:

noun Slang: Sometimes Disparaging and Offensive.

a person; fellow.

Is that all there is to it? Or do you see a better fit for one of the other definitions?

by EditorM

Dr. Lesis Moore

Maybe this should be held until the next time we assemble an Oopsies list post. But even if the wording owes something to bad translation or the author not being a native speaker of English, it’s still hard to guess how anything even somewhat plausibly translatable this way could fuel a story or joke to go with the drawing. Hey, is that even un patito at all?

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – February 11th, 2023

Thanks to Becky for this XKCD.

The rollover text (for those who insist it’s an integral part of each XKCD cartoon) was “3D graphs that don’t contact the plane in the closure area may proceed as scheduled, but be alert for possible collisions with 2D graph lines that reach the hole and unexpectedly enter the 3D space.”

Is the therapist playing off an ambiguity to humorously chide the client for being late … again?