Post by Lothar FringsPost by Tony CooperPost by Peter YoungPost by Lothar FringsIn a story by I. Asimov I came across
the word "bomb" for a slow and boring
party. Google finds it as an AE word
for a failure, so that's consistent,
but for example a "bombshell" is a
sexy woman, AFAIR.[*] Is this use of
"bomb" still in use? The Asimov story
is from the 70s.
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[*] And for that matter, every German
word beginning with "Bomb..."
means something great.
Transpondian. In AmE a show that bombs had failed. In BrE it would
mean that it's a great success.
No, "bomb" is either "great" or "a failure" in AmE depending on
context.
One word with two contrary meanings???
Sacré vieux farceur!
C'est en latin que se manifeste le mieux la division entre le profane et
le sacré; c'est aussi en latin qu'on découvre le caractère ambigu du «
sacré »: consacré aux dieux et chargé d'une souillure ineffaçable,
auguste et maudit, digne de vénération et suscitant l'horreur. Cette
double valeur est propre à sacer; elle contribue à distinguer sacer et
sanctus, car elle n'affecte à aucun degré l'adjectif apparenté sanctus.
É. BENVENISTE, Le Vocab. des instit. indo-européennes, Paris, éd. de
Minuit, t. 2, 1969, pp. 187-188.
It is in Latin that we can best see the distinction between profane and
sacred, and also in Latin that we find how ambiguous the word "sacré"
is: dedicated to the gods and forever stained with filth, honoured and
cursed, worthy of admiration and hair-raisingly terrible. This double
meaning is found in the Latin ancestor of the word, "sacer". (Etc.)
http://stella.atilf.fr/Dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/visusel.exe?12;s=3659885460;r=1;nat=;sol=1;