Talk:em casa de ferreiro, o espeto é de pau
Add topicLatest comment: 1 year ago by Jberkel in topic This is not what it means
This is not what it means
[edit]Sure, the English proverb is "parallel", but the Portuguese proverb *means* something completely different. In Portuguese, it means that the person is skilled on something (is a blacksmith) but doesn't use the skill in their own favor.
The Portuguese Wikipedia has an entry that says exactly that here: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_de_ferreiro,_espeto_de_pau
Given this, I will change the entry to note the similarity to the English proverb, but will add the correct translation. I am not really aware of the right etiquette on this, so I will just do it and I hope someone else will review this =) 2A02:8071:C81:5C20:0:0:0:47A7 10:05, 1 May 2023 (UTC)
- It's still a good approximation for a translation (there is some overlap), I've converted your additions to usage notes. Jberkel 10:58, 1 May 2023 (UTC)
- I understand. I only still fear that non-native speakers of Portuguese (or Spanish -- where the expression has the same meaning as in Portuguese), which are probably the people who would look for this entry, will come here and think that they "understand" the meaning of the expression based on the English translation... but they won't, because (despite the literal similarity) its ultimate meaning has absolutely nothing to do with "people closest to oneself" or to "neglecting people" (the meaning of the expression in English is written as "one often neglects those closest to oneself"), but rather to a conflict between expectations (typically about people, based on what they can do) and reality. I think the Usage Note does help, but it doesn't really fix the problem. 176.199.210.99 16:54, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
- It could also be the case that the English entry is defined too narrowly, or missing something. I'll start a conversation on our discussion room to get some input. Jberkel 18:25, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
- I understand. I only still fear that non-native speakers of Portuguese (or Spanish -- where the expression has the same meaning as in Portuguese), which are probably the people who would look for this entry, will come here and think that they "understand" the meaning of the expression based on the English translation... but they won't, because (despite the literal similarity) its ultimate meaning has absolutely nothing to do with "people closest to oneself" or to "neglecting people" (the meaning of the expression in English is written as "one often neglects those closest to oneself"), but rather to a conflict between expectations (typically about people, based on what they can do) and reality. I think the Usage Note does help, but it doesn't really fix the problem. 176.199.210.99 16:54, 2 May 2023 (UTC)