(urth) BotNS in German

[maru]

Well, barbican, to me, is pretty familiar- familiar enough I didn't even 
notice that it was supposed to be obscure. This is probably because I 
used to read a lot about castles and barbican is about the only other 
word used to describe 'gate'.  But some are pretty obscure- previously 
I'd never seen 'autarch' used as a noun (only as a small area of 
politcal theory-'autarchy') & I'm still not sure if 'lictor' is a real 
word. And 'cacogen'? Dunno.
~Maru

Hmpf MacSlow wrote:

>
>>
>>
>> According to my dictionaries, the German for barbican is
>> Barbakane,die; Torvorwerk, das
>
>
>
> Wow. Methinks I need a better dictionary!
>
> But, as I said, checking all kinds of dictionaries at the university 
> library and the Deutsche Bibliothek will probably help a lot. For the 
> time being, I just put the 'strange' words in brackets behind my 
> temporary translations of them. When I've collected enough of them 
> I'll make a trip to the library to check them all.
>
> Just curious: how well known is the word 'barbican' among native 
> speakers of English with an 'advanced' vocabulary? My German 
> vocabulary is pretty extensive, or so I'm told - I'm a native speaker, 
> I've always read a lot, I've had thirteen years of 'normal' school, 
> five years of university, three and a half years of professional 
> training as a goldsmith (including art history classes), I visit 
> museums and am interested in all kinds of 'cultural stuff' - yet I've 
> never in my life heard or read the word 'Barbakane' anywhere, I think.
>
> (Part of the 'problem' may be that I've been reading more English than 
> German for years now...)
>
> I'm just curious if that word, and others that Wolfe is using, could 
> be said to be slightly more 'common' in English than they are in 
> German, or if they're just as obscure.
>
> Hmpf
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List
> To post, write urth at urth.net
> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>