Talk:im Vorübergehen

RFD discussion: September 2018–May 2019

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im Vorübergehen

The German phrase is not idiomatic. It really means "while passing by", "while walking past someone". German for "in passing" is nebenbei or beiläufig. — This unsigned comment was added by 88.77.194.56 (talk) at 19:15, 2 September 2018 (UTC).

Delete as SoP. The term definitely has the literal meaning in the single given quotation by Stefan Zweig. I could not find any uses with a non-literal meaning.  --Lambiam 12:47, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

• RFD failed. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 22:58, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

@Metaknowledge – but see here, among others. Ƿidsiþ 15:56, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Also several examples here, only some of which are literal. IMO this needs to be reinstated. Ƿidsiþ 16:01, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Can you find such examples that are durably archived? @Lambiam says above that they could not. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 19:42, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Also, most of the examples at the Liguee site are essentially literal. For example, the first one is a blurb in German for an exhibition entitled IN PASSING, and the occurrence of “im Vorübergehen” is simply a translation of that English title. The second from the EU parliament is genuinely metaphorical, but is very likely the side effect of the fact that these documents are penned in one language and then have to be hastily translated to the other EU languages; the source language may have been French, Dutch or English, in which en passant is used metaphorically. This one is an exception, though. I am furthermore not fully sure what the precise meaning is supposed to be in the context of the striking mechanism of a passing strike clock, but it probably refers to the passing of the hours and half hours – not the contested and now deleted metaphorical sense. The French term would be sonnerie au passage; the German text may be the translation of a French text supplied by the Louvre, possibly by a translator for whom chiming clocks are not an area of bilingual expertise.  --Lambiam 21:53, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

In my original efforts, I gave up after the first dozen or so were all literal. Looking further, I have now found several metaphorical uses; they are pretty old though (1803; 1811; 1820). Can it be that the idiom has become obsolete? Interestingly, all uses refer to “a remark” (Anmerkung, Bemerkung, Erwähnung) made en passant.  --Lambiam 22:36, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

I'm sorry but that's just not the case. Many of the examples at Linguee are modern and clearly not literal. For example, Wir stellen die Notwendigkeit einer Reform keineswegs in Abrede, aber diese kann nicht auf diese Weise im Vorübergehen improvisiert werden. ‘We do not deny the need for reform, but it cannot be improvised in passing’, where they obviously do not refer to someone literally passing by. Similarly, Im Vorübergehen sei angemerkt, daß diese Krieger, die wir im Westen als "Selbstmordattentäter" zu bezeichnen pflegen… ‘In passing, note that those warriors, whom we in the West usually call "suicide bombers"…’. This phrase is also listed in many dictionaries, including my Collins. Ƿidsiþ 06:13, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

• Keep, believing the phrase is listed in Widsith's Collins. Furthermore, as for the claims made by the OP, by web research I find "Im vorliegenden Fall hat sich das Gericht nicht einmal im Vorübergehen mit der Frage auseinandergesetzt, ob die Kommission von Amts wegen zum Schadensersatz zu verurteilen sein könnte.", which seems to correspond to "in passing" or "superficially"; a fuller text at [1]. Moreover, the phrase is in https://www.openthesaurus.de/synonyme/im%20Vor%C3%BCbergehen, although I do not know how reliable openthesaurus is. --Dan Polansky (talk) 16:27, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

  A quotation from Google books: "Man darf wohl sagen, daß sich Killing nur im Vorübergehen mit der nichteuklidischen Mechanik auseinandergesetzt hatte, sozusagen als Sprungbrett zu seinen Forschungen über die Strukturtheorie der Lie- Algebren." More search: google books:"im Vorübergehen" auseinandergesetzt. Here is Collins:vorübergehen[2], having "im Vorübergehen" as a subitem. --Dan Polansky (talk) 16:38, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

• Undeleted and now RFD passed per this late-breaking evidence. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 05:42, 7 May 2019 (UTC)