Sinuhe 2011

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kätten päällepanijaksi

Sinuhe says this, when he is giving examples of the different specializations he could take as a doctor. What does it mean? Hand's to-top-putter? Panija sounds like a funny thing, I don't think there is something quite like in English that is used much. Placer? I can only think, of a machine that places things on a production line...

[jahasjahas]

Something similar to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laying_on_of_hands

Note that "kätten" is plural genitive (you said "hand's").

[Jukka Aho]

Panija sounds like a funny thing, I don't think there is something quite like in English that is used much. Placer? I can only think, of a machine that places things on a production line...

placer, assigner, depositer, fitter, putter (?), setter, planter

[Pursuivant]

Yes, its very specific - as it says on the Wikipedia. Its not used much else this form.

So Sinuhe is contemplating of becoming a "layer-of-hands" healer.

[AldenG]

When you're first trying to figure out the meaning of such compound words, and not knowing whether they're ordinary or not, it's easy to take them more seriously than Waltari intended. We're supposed to chuckle at the serious, that's-really-a-thing? treatment of this "medical specialty," much as we do at the notion of an official Royal Head Borer. Then again the RHB existed, and much of the reality of ancient life has this life-imitates-parody quality to it -- as does much of modern life (if anything is ever truly modern), and that is the core of Waltari's point of view. He's a lot like Mark Twain in that respect. Both love to say things in what seems a serious tone on the surface, but with a twinkle in the eye.

After a word like kättenpäällepanija gets used a few times, maybe it starts to lose some of its sardonic edge, but it's easy to see that the first person to come up with the word (whoever that was) meant it humorously. Think of "political correctness," which today is just an overused whine-word. But originally its usage outside the east bloc was sarcastic, novel, and humorous.

[Pursuivant]

Waltari also writes as Sinuhe, so he doesn't explain "things everybody knows" but refers to them, so you "feel" like a dumb foreigner strolling in Thebes after Sinuhe gawking at the market.

[maximumforum]

Something similar to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laying_on_of_hands

Note that "kätten" is plural genitive (you said "hand's").

That's so crazy.

He tends to use the 'rare' (according to Wiktionary) form of the plural. käden, käsien, kätten (rare). It is not always obvious to me if he is using the plural or singular genitive, I doubt that I lose much by missing that but I need to pay more attention to it. I notice some confusion around this stuff, when to use the genitive or plural or singular. e.g. työnjako, työmaa (logically it makes sense for me to think: the division is ONLY related to the work, but the land can have other uses too and it isn't exclusively for work. people sleep, eat, the land is redesignated to other purposes etc.), and in English it doesn't seem always clear whether to use something's or somethings'.

Panija sounds like a funny thing, I don't think there is something quite like in English that is used much. Placer? I can only think, of a machine that places things on a production line...

placer, assigner, depositer, fitter, putter (?), setter, planter

Oh yeah, I was missing that panna has more uses than the English 'to put':

Kuka haluaa panna Annaa?

When you're first trying to figure out the meaning of such compound words, and not knowing whether they're ordinary or not, it's easy to take them more seriously than Waltari intended. We're supposed to chuckle at the serious, that's-really-a-thing? treatment of this "medical specialty," much as we do at the notion of an official Royal Head Borer. Then again the RHB existed, and much of the reality of ancient life has this life-imitates-parody quality to it -- as does much of modern life (if anything is ever truly modern), and that is the core of Waltari's point of view. He's a lot like Mark Twain in that respect. Both love to say things in what seems a serious tone on the surface, but with a twinkle in the eye.

We're just puny humans, brute-forcing our way and occasinally refining our ways, and those that come after us will look at us and laugh at our relative barbarism, too. History of medicine has silly things like that. But I testify, that at least the Egyptian human did not change, and that we Egyptians in everyday life make self-deprecating jokes about how we are still like Pharaohs: the new president kills the last, removes his pictures from school classrooms and government offices and puts his own (deletes his name), removes his hovimiehet and brings his own, and how Egyptians pretend to make everything from zero (Egyptians have a saying: "we are who painted the air boya". boya is Turkish for paint, in Egyptian dialect of Arabic we have Turkish loanwords.) rather than standing on the shoulders of others. We have a word for this (a person pretending that he built it all from zero, that he does the impossible, being too full of him/herself), and I don't know how to translate it but: pharaofy or something like that. Like Pharao with -ly or -sti stuck to the end, but in Egyptian Arabic. We're still Pharaohs, when our president stays president until either exile (the first one after independence from England), death/assassination (the two after him), or jail (the fourh and fifth).

Edit: laiminlyödä, lyödä laimin. I see it in Nykysuomen Sanakirja, and it says about leaving something without care, leaving something undone regarding responsiblity etc, but I can't figure out what laimin comes from. It's not in Nykysuomen Etymologinen Sanakirja and I'm curious about it. What is laimin? Is it something about laimea (lukewarm)? Why not laimeaanlyödä? beat-into-lukewarm? Or is this laimi, lime juice? If so, why not laimiinlyödä? And what does lime have to do with this?

[AldenG]

laimin...

Hmm, funny, in all these years I never even thought to wonder, nor have I heard it in any other context. "Neglect" is a good translation of laiminlyödä, which often has an official feel to it and when not official, still a scolding sense for neglect of a "should-have-done" responsibility.

In English, you might neglect to turn off the lights, but laiminlyödä is more like neglect to pay your taxes or keep the snow cleared from your sidewalk.

[jahasjahas]

Etymologisessa sanakirjassa "Suomen sanojen alkuperä" (v.1995) arvellaan 'laimin'-sanan olevan samaa alkuperää kuin 'laimea', joka voi murteesta riippuen tarkoittaa mietoa, haaleaa, lauhkeaa ja tyyntä. Jusleniuksen sanakirjan mukaan (v. 1745) 'laimi' on tarkoittanut tyyntä kohtaa veden pinnalla.

http://www.kysy.fi/kysymys/kun-sanotaan ... in-alkuaan

If we want to pick a case for "laimin", it sounds like an instructive form to me. Not that it matters much, since "laimin" isn't used in any other form or in any other context than laiminlyönti / laiminlyödä / lyödä laimin.

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Koetin hoitaa Kaptahia ja matkustajia parhaani mukaan, mutta kun koetin kajota matkustajiin, he kirosivat minua, ja kun tarjosin ruokaa Kaptahille, jotta hän vahvistuisi, hän käänsi päänsä pois ja päästeli louskuttavia ääniä kuin virtahevonen tyhjentääkseen vatsansa, vaikka siinä ei enää ollut mitään tyhjentämistä.

louskuttaa, louskua etc. Does it mean when someone closes their jaws together? I can kind of make that out from Nykysuomen Sanakirja but I'm not sure, what it would be in English. Maybe that he let voices through his teeth? (I think that that is an idiom in English...)

And what does the waterhorse (I can't remember his name in English, we call it waterhorse in Arabic too) have to do with emptying stomach? Is that something related to how they work?

[Upphew]

Koetin hoitaa Kaptahia ja matkustajia parhaani mukaan, mutta kun koetin kajota matkustajiin, he kirosivat minua, ja kun tarjosin ruokaa Kaptahille, jotta hän vahvistuisi, hän käänsi päänsä pois ja päästeli louskuttavia ääniä kuin virtahevonen tyhjentääkseen vatsansa, vaikka siinä ei enää ollut mitään tyhjentämistä.

louskuttaa, louskua etc. Does it mean when someone closes their jaws together? I can kind of make that out from Nykysuomen Sanakirja but I'm not sure, what it would be in English. Maybe that he let voices through his teeth? (I think that that is an idiom in English...)

Louskua is one that you wont hear. It may be grammatically correct, but certainly not used. But you got the meaning about right. Dog barking for the heck of it would doing that. People who were "barking" to someone who ignored them knowing that barking dog won't bite, could be said louskuttaa to someone.

And what does the waterhorse (I can't remember his name in English, we call it waterhorse in Arabic too) have to do with emptying stomach? Is that something related to how they work?

Hippo. Kaptah made sounds like hippo that opened and closed its jaws (louskuttaa) when trying to empty his(?) already empty stomach.

[Jukka Aho]

Louskua is one that you wont hear. It may be grammatically correct, but certainly not used.

http://www.google.fi/search?q=%22leuat%20louskuivat%22

But you got the meaning about right. Dog barking for the heck of it would doing that. People who were "barking" to someone who ignored them knowing that barking dog won't bite, could be said louskuttaa to someone.

The verb louskuttaa is partially onomatopoetic. It conjures up images of jaws or a jaw-like mechanical structure repeatedly opening and closing in a hasty, mechanically/structurally loose, noisy fashion. (Compare to loukuttaa, which is something you do to flax stems in order to refine them into linen thread.)

[Upphew]

(Compare to loukuttaa, which is something you do to flax stems in order to refine them into linen thread.)

That loukuttaa is new to me. Images that loukuttaa usually conjure are: trap and neighbour's cat.

[Jukka Aho]

(Compare to loukuttaa, which is something you do to flax stems in order to refine them into linen thread.)

That loukuttaa is new to me. Images that loukuttaa usually conjure are: trap and neighbour's cat.

Those, too, although maybe not directly related. (From loukku: “a trap, snare (for catching prey)”.) Maybe some analogy can be drawn to the mechanism of a pellavaloukku, though?

Edit: On a second thought, “a trap” is defined in English as:

“...a contrivance used for catching game or other animals, as a mechanical device that springs shut suddenly.”

“...a slang word for mouth” (!)

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“...a slang word for mouth” (!)

I only see that happening in "shut your trap", which rolls more nicely off the tongue if you say "shut yer trap", I think.