Looking for the word

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Woods
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Looking for the word

Postby Woods » 2020-03-01, 16:42

That sensation one gets after sitting on one's leg for example, and thus cutting the blood supply to a certain part of the body ("изтръпване" in Bulgarian). Tingle, quiver, prickle, shudder - I looked into those, but none of them seems to match, or at least the definitions in the dictionaries are not clear. How would you call it?

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-03-01, 17:50

Woods wrote:That sensation one gets after sitting on one's leg for example, and thus cutting the blood supply to a certain part of the body ("изтръпване" in Bulgarian). Tingle, quiver, prickle, shudder - I looked into those, but none of them seems to match, or at least the definitions in the dictionaries are not clear. How would you call it?


The verb tingle seems to indicate a less intense feeling than you usually feel with this, but I don't know of a better verb. The feeling itself is tingling (same problem as above) or pins and needles (pretty accurate I think). What people normally actually say is my leg fell asleep or my leg is asleep.

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Naava » 2020-03-01, 18:12

Linguaphile wrote:What people normally actually say is my leg fell asleep or my leg is asleep.

I've always thought this is so cute! Like, what kind of dreams does a leg have? :mrgreen:

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-03-01, 18:34

Naava wrote:Like, what kind of dreams does a leg have? :mrgreen:

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Woods » 2020-03-01, 18:53

Linguaphile wrote:
Woods wrote:That sensation one gets after sitting on one's leg for example, and thus cutting the blood supply to a certain part of the body ("изтръпване" in Bulgarian). Tingle, quiver, prickle, shudder - I looked into those, but none of them seems to match, or at least the definitions in the dictionaries are not clear. How would you call it?


The verb tingle seems to indicate a less intense feeling than you usually feel with this, but I don't know of a better verb. The feeling itself is tingling (same problem as above) or pins and needles (pretty accurate I think). What people normally actually say is my leg fell asleep or my leg is asleep.


What would you use in a medical context?

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-03-01, 19:28

Woods wrote:
Linguaphile wrote:
Woods wrote:That sensation one gets after sitting on one's leg for example, and thus cutting the blood supply to a certain part of the body ("изтръпване" in Bulgarian). Tingle, quiver, prickle, shudder - I looked into those, but none of them seems to match, or at least the definitions in the dictionaries are not clear. How would you call it?


The verb tingle seems to indicate a less intense feeling than you usually feel with this, but I don't know of a better verb. The feeling itself is tingling (same problem as above) or pins and needles (pretty accurate I think). What people normally actually say is my leg fell asleep or my leg is asleep.


What would you use in a medical context?


The patient would most likely describe the symptoms to the doctor as numbness and tingling or pins and needles.
The doctor would call it paresthesia.

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Woods » 2020-03-01, 20:50

Linguaphile wrote:
Woods wrote:
Linguaphile wrote:
Woods wrote:That sensation one gets after sitting on one's leg for example, and thus cutting the blood supply to a certain part of the body ("изтръпване" in Bulgarian). Tingle, quiver, prickle, shudder - I looked into those, but none of them seems to match, or at least the definitions in the dictionaries are not clear. How would you call it?


The verb tingle seems to indicate a less intense feeling than you usually feel with this, but I don't know of a better verb. The feeling itself is tingling (same problem as above) or pins and needles (pretty accurate I think). What people normally actually say is my leg fell asleep or my leg is asleep.


What would you use in a medical context?


The patient would most likely describe the symptoms to the doctor as numbness and tingling or pins and needles.
The doctor would call it paresthesia.

Thanks!

Accoding to Oxford Dictionaries:
An abnormal sensation, typically tingling or pricking (‘pins and needles’), caused chiefly by pressure on or damage to peripheral nerves.

Hm, I thought it was related to the restriction of blood supply? But I guess that's the thing, thanks for the good explanation.
Last edited by Woods on 2020-03-02, 9:09, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Naava » 2020-03-01, 20:51

Linguaphile wrote:
Naava wrote:Like, what kind of dreams does a leg have? :mrgreen:

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:rotfl:

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Car » 2020-03-02, 10:26

Naava wrote:
Linguaphile wrote:What people normally actually say is my leg fell asleep or my leg is asleep.

I've always thought this is so cute! Like, what kind of dreams does a leg have? :mrgreen:

We also use it in German ("Mein Bein ist eingeschlafen.")
Please correct my mistakes!

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Naava » 2020-03-02, 10:52

Very nice! 👍

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Woods » 2020-08-12, 7:08

Now looking for another word: is there a way to say it when a door is not fully open, but just a little bit, by a person who is not sure if they want to open it or it is just standing like that because it was not fully closed or somebody left it so another person can enter, but without making it obvious to everyone?

I need an adjective. In Bulgarian there's "открехнат".

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby languagepotato » 2020-08-12, 13:23

If i recall correctly, the word for slightly open is ajar
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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-08-12, 14:37

languagepotato wrote:If i recall correctly, the word for slightly open is ajar

Yes exactly, I would say "ajar".

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Woods » 2020-08-22, 6:34

Linguaphile wrote:
languagepotato wrote:If i recall correctly, the word for slightly open is ajar

Yes exactly, I would say "ajar".

That's a really cool word to know!

While waiting (and not being sure if there would be answers), I wrote the thing as "whether the door is fully or slightly opened." I can change to "whether it's fully opened or ajar", but I'm not sure which one sounds better?

What does an English speaker imagine when hearing that a door is ajar - just a door very slightly opened or something else? Cause the explanation about the etymology is something to do with the door moving back and forth on the hinges like a pendulum and making noises. I need a peaceful word.

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby linguoboy » 2020-08-22, 15:49

Woods wrote:While waiting (and not being sure if there would be answers), I wrote the thing as "whether the door is fully or slightly opened." I can change to "whether it's fully opened or ajar", but I'm not sure which one sounds better?

I would say "fully opened or slightly ajar". A bit redundant, but the parallel structure sounds better to me.

Woods wrote:What does an English speaker imagine when hearing that a door is ajar - just a door very slightly opened or something else? Cause the explanation about the etymology is something to do with the door moving back and forth on the hinges like a pendulum and making noises. I need a peaceful word.

A door "ajar" is a door at rest. If you wanted to express that it was in motion, you'd use a different expression.
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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Linguaphile » 2020-08-22, 18:08

linguoboy wrote:I would say "fully opened or slightly ajar". A bit redundant, but the parallel structure sounds better to me.
This is what I would say as well.

Woods wrote:What does an English speaker imagine when hearing that a door is ajar - just a door very slightly opened or something else? Cause the explanation about the etymology is something to do with the door moving back and forth on the hinges like a pendulum and making noises. I need a peaceful word.

Where did you find that etymology? I don't think it has anything to do with moving back and forth or making noises. It comes from an older word with the meaning of "turn", but as far as I know it refers to the hinges being left in a slightly turned position - not to the action of turning or moving back and forth.

As for what English speakers imagine when I hear that a door is ajar, I think of a door that is slightly open. It might be so slightly open that nothing but a sliver of light (if there is light on the other side) and sound come through, so you might say that you overheard someone's conversation in another room because they had left the door ajar. Or it might be open wide enough for a small animal to pass through. (I think of that example because some of the inner doors in my house do not latch properly when closed so my cats are always pushing them open. After a cat pushes them open the doors remain ajar, open just wide enough for the cats to go in and out, until a person comes along and either opens it fully or closes it again. This means doors around my house are very often ajar.)

But don't take my word for it. A good way to get a feel for what English speakers imagine when hearing that a door is ajar is to take a look at the various Google images that come up when you search for images of "ajar". You'll see there that almost all of the doors in the pictures have been left slightly open to various degrees and not in motion.

Here's another example of ajar: on some cars, the warning light that tells you that a door has not closed completely says the words door ajar instead of showing a picture of a car with an open door. Usually the words door ajar better describe what has happened because usually the door haven't been left wide open (the way the lighted picture would show) - usually the situation is actually that a door someone meant to close didn't actually close all the way so it has been left very slightly open, so slightly that the driver wouldn't notice it without the warning light. It certainly doesn't mean the door is moving back and forth or making noise. It just means that the door is slightly open or in other words not fully closed.
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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Woods » 2020-08-23, 9:09

Linguaphile wrote:
linguoboy wrote:I would say "fully opened or slightly ajar". A bit redundant, but the parallel structure sounds better to me.
This is what I would say as well.

Okay, so I get that if I say "fully opened or ajar," it wouldn't be clear if it's very slightly opened or halfway for example, but most likely people would imagine it just a tiny little bit open?


Linguaphile wrote:Where did you find that etymology?

https://blog.oup.com/2012/08/word-origin-ajar-etymology/


Linguaphile wrote:It might be so slightly open that nothing but a sliver of light (if there is light on the other side) [...] come[s] through

That's exactly what I want!

So what about "whether it's fully opened or ajar" - would you imagine it very slightly open if you near that?

I don't like the "redundancy" of saying "slightly ajar" that linguoboy mentioned. But I really want the person reading to imagine that the door is very slightly opened - so if we have to use the extra words, maybe I could add "whether it's fully opened or very slightly ajar"?


Or what about "whether it's fully or slightly opened" / "whether it's fully or just a little bit open" / "whether it's fully or just very slightly opened" - does any of those sound good?


At the moment it stands as "whether it's fully or just a tiny little bit open". Should I change to something, like "whether it's fully opened or very slightly ajar"?


Linguaphile wrote:A good way to get a feel for what English speakers imagine when hearing that a door is ajar is to take a look at the various Google images that come up when you search for images of "ajar".

I actually did that! But there came just a few images. But yeah - from the results it seems that saying only "ajar" is enough.

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby linguoboy » 2020-08-27, 18:35

Woods wrote:I don't like the "redundancy" of saying "slightly ajar" that linguoboy mentioned. But I really want the person reading to imagine that the door is very slightly opened - so if we have to use the extra words, maybe I could add "whether it's fully opened or very slightly ajar"?

You asked what sounded good to native speakers. This is what sounds best to me.

Woods wrote:Or what about "whether it's fully or slightly opened" / "whether it's fully or just a little bit open" / "whether it's fully or just very slightly opened" - does any of those sound good?

Nope.
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Re: Looking for the word

Postby Woods » 2020-08-28, 6:11

linguoboy wrote:
Woods wrote:I don't like the "redundancy" of saying "slightly ajar" that linguoboy mentioned. But I really want the person reading to imagine that the door is very slightly opened - so if we have to use the extra words, maybe I could add "whether it's fully opened or very slightly ajar"?

You asked what sounded good to native speakers. This is what sounds best to me.

Does the very add anything there or is it too much?

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Re: Looking for the word

Postby linguoboy » 2020-08-28, 10:14

Woods wrote:
linguoboy wrote:
Woods wrote:I don't like the "redundancy" of saying "slightly ajar" that linguoboy mentioned. But I really want the person reading to imagine that the door is very slightly opened - so if we have to use the extra words, maybe I could add "whether it's fully opened or very slightly ajar"?

You asked what sounded good to native speakers. This is what sounds best to me.

Does the very add anything there or is it too much?

Honestly I hadn’t noticed that you’d added it. That should give you an idea how little difference it makes.
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