Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Language/2006 August 13

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[edit] Translations of Japanese/Chinese phrases

What does "釘宮理恵" mean? I'm not sure of the original language. Babelfish says if it's traditional Chinese, it's "Nail palace principle □"; whereas if it's Japanese, it's "Rie Kugimiya." Windows Media Player somehow came up with this as a folder name when it was sorting the song Banquet by Bloc Party. On a related note, what does "「りぜるまいん」主題歌～はじめてしましょ！｜ほんきパワーのだっしゅ！" mean? NeonMerlin 05:25, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Update: Some Googling, and following an interlanguage link from the Japanese Wikipedia, have revealed who 釘宮理恵 (Rie Kugimiya) is. However, that still leaves the question of the other phrase. NeonMerlin 05:32, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
The first part 「りぜるまいん」 transliterates to "Rizerumain" ("Rizelmine"), which is the name of an anime [1]. --LambiamTalk 06:04, August 13, 2006 (UTC)
りぜるまいん is Rizelmine. 主題歌 is theme song. はじめて♡しましょ is "Let's ♡ for the first time", the title of the opening theme song. ほんきパワーのだっしゅ! is "Real power dash!", the title of the ending theme. --Kjoonlee 06:21, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
Well, this is clearly an example of how poorly Windows Media Player's metadata services can work when they don't have the whole album. I'm sure glad I now use iTunes for almost everything. NeonMerlin 15:37, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Use of Nowadays

I'm not sure why, but I have always thought the word nowadays to be very informal and not acceptable for any sort of formal writing. When I see it used in a Wikipedia article, I want to reword things to eliminate it. However, from some quick looking at some online dictionaries, I don't see any indication that it's not just as fine a word as currently. Now I'm curious: am I very peculiar in my attitude towards this word, or do others share my view? –RHolton≡– 11:56, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

"Nowadays" to me doesn't sound very informal; it just sounds like it came out of the mouth of a senior citizen. "Currently" is probably best for a Wikipedia aricle, although it is very formal and sounds weird in vernacular. They're not exactly synonyms, are they? - THE GREAT GAVINI {T|C|#} 12:36, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

We use it a lot in the south-western United States (i.e. Texas). schyler 12:52, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What does <3 mean

I have seen this on some message boards but don't know what <3 means... it is leet?

(moved here from further up) doktorb wordsdeeds 13:33, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

It's a heart. Isopropyl 13:34, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
It is also used in some circles as a dismembered rear end.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  20:11, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
Which makes more sense if you look at it from the emoticon-perspective. The heart is upside down. (or is that left side right?) DirkvdM 07:01, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

It's a heart or balls and a pecker. --mboverload@ 09:47, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I think the pecker is written as o==8 ... 惑乱 分からん 10:03, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
<3 is a very short penis. --mboverload@ 10:04, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
Still quite thick girth, though. What about -8 ? (Wonder if this discussion will be removed, soon...) 惑乱 分からん 10:08, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
Vulgarity is a form of language.
Wikipedia is not censored. --Nelson Ricardo 15:54, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Not as scary as +---8 or ^---8 or even :---8 Lemon martini 19:33, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

  • haha piercings! hotclaws**==(82.138.214.1 00:19, 16 August 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Seperate Login Name for each language of Wikipedia?

Hello, I had registered my login name in the german part of Wikipedia a while ago, and when I wanted to go to an english page and log in that username was unknown.

Is it necessary to create a new account for each language in which one wants to edit/discuss?

Or is there a way to have only ONE account, but still be able to edit/discuss in more than one language?

Each language's Wikipedia currently have separate accounts, as do other Wikimedia sites. For now, you'll have to make a new account. -Goldom ‽‽‽ ⁂ 15:12, 13 August 2006 (UTC)
"Single log-in" has been something desired for quite some time, and it will soon be implemented. See this article from Wikipedia Signpost from a few weeks ago. -- Arwel (talk) 12:10, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Biathlon World Championship 2005

There's a few things in Biathlon World Championship 2005 that I can't translate from Germany, esp. the "sch." thing on the table. Anyone now enough about biathlon to make this mean something? Thanks in advance. --Brandnewuser 15:11, 13 August 2006 (UTC)


The Sch. column shows the number of shots missed on each lap. In biathlon, when one misses a shot one has to ski an extra distance round a penalty loop, and that column shows how many times each competitor had to do so. (Slightly different in the individual event, where there are no penalty loops and instead there is a time penalty for missed shots - but the meaning of the column is the same.)
As for the event titles, I'm sure you are onto these, but "Verfolgung" is best translated as "pursuit", "Massenstart" is "mass start" and "Einzel" is "individual".
A pedantic point - since your copy from the German Wikipedia is for the English Wikipedia, I feel we should follow English language usage and have (eg) 7.5 km rather than 7,5 km.AndyofKent 17:36, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Implemented those changes. Any idea what they write instead of sch. in English? Missed shots? Penalty loops? --Brandnewuser 19:53, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vytauto street in Lithuanian?

When I was in Lithuania recently, it seemed that many main streets were called "Vytauto Gatve" or something like this. Why is this? Does "Vytauto" translate as something like "High" or "Main" street, or does it refer to something else? --Robert Merkel 19:04, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

I think it refers to Vytautas the Great. --LambiamTalk 20:19, 13 August 2006 (UTC) Postscriptum: For example in the article Vytautas Magnus University you can see that the Lithuanian name is Vytauto Didžiojo Universitetas. --L. 20:24, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sentence structure

In the sentence, "Max pounded David to death." what is the correct classification of "to death?" We are considering death to be a noun, but that to death as a prepositionary phrase modifying the verb pounded may be an adverb. --71.98.25.194 23:30, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

It's an adverbial, specifically an adjunct. Daniel Šebesta (talk • contribs) 23:42, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

While the prepositional phrase is adverbial, what would the classification of "death" be? Thanks for the answer, by the way. --71.98.25.194 01:03, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

"Death" alone is still a noun. However, in connetion with the preposition, it funtions in the sentence as an adverbial (different from adverb). Daniel Šebesta (talk • contribs) 01:08, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for all of your responses. --71.98.25.194 02:34, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Could it be a suppository impaction?Edison 19:14, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Depends whereabouts he was pounded.Sounds mighty painful... Lemon martini 19:35, 15 August 2006 (UTC)