Talk:tchick

RFV discussion: January–February 2020

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tchick

All three PoSes. The noun sense says the term is used to urge on horses and to express disapproval. These seem to me to be very different meanings. I also cannot find the single cite for the interjection from Balzac in English translations. The uses I have found are mostly representations in writing of animal or other natural sounds. Verbal disapproval is rare. DCDuring (talk) 01:37, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

For the noun sense we do not need to indicate the purposes to which the sound can be put. Compare sense 2 of the noun click. In the sense of disapproval (or disappointment) I’d classify it as an interjection, an alternative spelling of tsk. A reduplicated “tchick! tchick!” (alternative spelling of tsk tsk) is seen e.g. here, twice even. I did not find the quoted Balzac translation. The original French has “xi, xi, xi”, which many translators leave untranslated; the 1896 translation by Ellen Marriage has “hist!—st!—st!”. Both the 1999 translation by Krailsheimer and the 2011 translation by Olivia McCannon have “gee up!”.  --Lambiam 12:48, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

cited I have cleaned up the POS a bit, and broadened some of the definitions, since I found the sound used for other animals besides horses, or for disappointment rather than disapproval. We no longer need the translation of Balzac. Kiwima (talk) 20:20, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

The Balzac cite was the most annoying part of the whole thing. DCDuring (talk) 22:13, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

There seem to be two speech sounds represented here: the sound used for horses is generally held to be a lateral click ("ǁ"), while the "tsk tsk" sound of disapproval is probably a dental click ("ǀ"). The spelling fits the latter sound better, but "unilateral" seems to fit the former better. Perhaps we're being too phonetically specific. Chuck Entz (talk) 23:20, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

• I strongly object to the meaningless pseudo-definition of the noun. It is a poor description of a sound, not of the meaning or use. Would we accept such a definition of "oh", "ah", "ay", "oy", or tsk? In addition, it is not a definition that serves normal users. DCDuring (talk) 05:34, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

  How should we define the meaning or use of the tchick of a button? For most nouns that describe a sound, we have a poor description of the sound and no meaning (roar, creak, hiss, ...).  --Lambiam 08:40, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

• I've had to improve some of these in the past, along the lines of squeak defined as "the sound made by a mouse" (which could equally define gnawing or rustling). I feel that "oh", "ah" are more word-like and less noise-like than "tchick" but can't really explain why. They certainly have more senses. Equinox ◑ 08:45, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 22:29, 2 February 2020 (UTC)