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Makes sense to me Larry Send a noteboard - 28/11/2010 07:13:08 PM
contempt as it is used in the title.

I can only speak for Czech language here, I don't know if this also applies to Polish.

Now, after some thinking about it, I believe that there's a slight difference. Not in the word contempt itself, but in adjectives that can be made from it. In Czech, as in English, you can have two adjectives derived from the noun contempt - contemptuous and contemptible - in Czech opovržlivý and opovrženíhodný. And I think that Czech opovrženíhodný can be a bit stronger than English contemptible, and that it can have a wider application than English contemptible.

Opovrženíhodný can also be translated as despicable, abominable, vile, and maybe even heinous. And if you inverse the Czech title and use opovrženíhodný you get something like Abominable Times or Vile Times. So, although the meaning of the title translated from Czech to English would be Times of Contempt (or Disdain), a Czech can feel the world opovrženíhodný in the title, and I think that it can therefore make a stronger impression in Czech than in English.


In today's English, "contempt" (and to an extent, "disdain") contains a callous disregard or disrespect for another, but it doesn't have the hint of violence. Perhaps "despise" or "despite" might carry that connotation of active dislike and disregard, close to but not fully synonymous with "hatred."
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie

Je suis méchant.
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Andrzej Sapkowski, Times of Disdain/Tiempo del odio - 27/11/2010 03:24:22 AM 1279 Views
Re: Andrzej Sapkowski, Times of Disdain/Tiempo del odio - 27/11/2010 09:37:07 PM 843 Views
The main reason why I lean toward "hatred" is later on - 27/11/2010 09:43:43 PM 810 Views
Yeah, there may be a slight difference between Czech and English meaning of the word - 28/11/2010 10:49:23 AM 781 Views
Makes sense to me - 28/11/2010 07:13:08 PM 839 Views
Now for that passage near the end of the book I said I'd post - 28/11/2010 02:35:38 AM 766 Views
Hm. I'd actually say it makes me more inclined to think "contempt" is right after all. - 28/11/2010 10:50:09 AM 844 Views
I didn't quote what happened immediately afterward, as that is a major spoiler - 28/11/2010 07:16:39 PM 736 Views
Fair points. *NM* - 29/11/2010 12:26:28 AM 398 Views
Re: Now for that passage near the end of the book I said I'd post - 28/11/2010 11:03:18 AM 770 Views
Re: Now for that passage near the end of the book I said I'd post - 29/11/2010 01:12:58 AM 639 Views
- 29/11/2010 04:53:12 AM 776 Views
You made me want to go and reread this again - 29/11/2010 12:07:46 AM 821 Views
I'm in the midst of re-reading The Tower of the Swallow - 29/11/2010 12:32:23 AM 910 Views
Re: I'm in the midst of re-reading The Tower of the Swallow - 29/11/2010 01:05:30 AM 855 Views
Re: I'm in the midst of re-reading The Tower of the Swallow - 29/11/2010 05:02:48 AM 841 Views
Re: I'm in the midst of re-reading The Tower of the Swallow - 29/11/2010 04:39:02 PM 877 Views
I REALLY can't wait for this to come out in English - 30/11/2010 04:50:56 AM 832 Views
Re: I REALLY can't wait for this to come out in English - 30/11/2010 03:45:33 PM 844 Views

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