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Re: Breaking Priscian's head

From:Raymond A. Brown <raybrown@...>
Date:Monday, February 22, 1999, 22:01
At 9:42 am -0500 22/2/99, John Cowan wrote:
>On the Lojban mailing list, someone wrote: > >> Tradutore tracidore. > >Hey, I like that! "Translator, tracidor." > >There doesn't seem to be any Latin root "tracid-", alas, at least >not that I can find easily. > >Ray?
...and none that I've discovered after effort either :) - and I've let my imagination stretch to the extremes of plausibility and tried everything I can think of. Actually, the -idor doesn't look Italian but Spanish; and the single -t- instead of the -tt- would also suggest Spanish. But, alas, the ending -ore is no good and in any case: (a) the word is 'traductor' in Spanish and (b) AFAIK tracidor doesn't exist :) Must be some aberrant dialect - problably spoken by one person who has somehow got the English (and French) 'trace' muddled up with the idea of betrayal & treachery.
>(Yeah, I know it's an error.
Well, yes, I suppose we mustn't rule out that possibilty
>My favorite translation of the >original, *traduttore traditore*: "Transductor, treasoner".)
:-) Ray.