με το καγέν

Theseus

Theseus

¥
I was looking up a phrase which I had come across in my reading, δηλ. στο φτερό to see if it could be used in the sense of ‘at the double’ like μάνι μάνι or τσάκα τσάκα. The phrase seems generally to mean ‘on the fly’ i.e. in a hurry and often without preparation. I looked it up also in slang.gr where there appear this sentence:

Από την γρήγορη και πετυχημένη βολή του κυνηγού προς τα αθώα πουλάκια, καθώς αυτά πετούν για να γλιτώσουν από τον καημένο και ΠΕΙΝΑΣΜΕΝΟ (why capitalised?) κυνηγό με το καγέν. I can understand the sentence apart from the word καγέν. It can hardly mean ‘cayenne pepper! But what does it mean?
 
Thanks all! BTW:- Why is πεισμένος in capital letters? Any ideas? Is it because ‘hungry’ for a man with a Porsche is satirical. Έτσι νομίζω…😹
 
I think so, Theseus. The capitalised letters are most likely used to imply and highlight sarcasm and irony. A person driving a Porsche Cayenne obviously doesn't need to hunt for and kill birds out of necessity or for survival. You can also think of the capitalization as a written eye-roll or an expression of exasperation on the writer's part.
 
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cougr said:
Minor point, although the spelling καγέν isn't uncommon, the standard transliteration for cayenne (whether for the Porsche, peppers etc.) is καγιέν.
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Or maybe we just found a sleek way of distinguishing between the Porsche and the pepper… :p

cougr said:
I think so, Theseus. The capitalised letters are most likely used to imply and highlight sarcasm and irony. A person driving a Porsche Cayenne obviously doesn't need to hunt for and kill birds out of necessity or for survival. You can also think of the capitalization as a written eye-roll or an expression of exasperation on the writer's part.
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What's more, it can be construed as a scornful attempt at sketching out the "psyche" of the hunter in question, as also suggested in the comment section over at slang.gr : he suffers other deprivations (sexual or what have you) that he vents by killing birds…

Katsik35 said:
Apparently, there is also an airgun model called Cayenne:
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Although this fits the context remarkably well, I seriously doubt that the guys at slang.gr had a specific airgun in mind. For starters, such an opaque and niched meaning would at least call for a link, such as the one you provided, clarifying things for the reader, but more importantly, it wouldn't really fit the overall contemptuousness of the whole entry: if someone's into airguns he's more likely to share a hunter's interests than mock them… Good find nonetheless! :-)



And by the way, viewer's discretion is advised:
 
Και μια που η πρωτεύουσα της γαλλικής Γουιάνας είναι η Καγέν, από την οποία παιρνει το όνομά του το πιπέρι, το αυτοκίνητο, το όπλο κλπ, υποθέτω ότι η γραφή Καγιέν οφείλεται στο ότι οι κύριοι- γιατί πάντα κύριοι είναι στην Ελλάδα- που ασχολούνται με ιχ δεν ασχολούνται με την κουζίνα (η γεωγραφία είναι άλλο ανέκδοτο).
 
m_a_a_ said:
Or maybe we just found a sleek way of distinguishing between the Porsche and the pepper… :p
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A bit of trivia for the day:

It actually did cross my mind but then I discovered that the model's name actually derives from the piquant cayenne pepper. Apparently it was coined by brand naming expert Manfred Gotta and chosen to represent the car's fiery nature, intense performance, and spicy, spirited driving dynamics. (And if someone could enlighten me as to how "spicy, spirited driving" might be translated into Greek, I'd be delighted).
 
Όσο βγάει νόημα στα αγγλικά, τόσο βγάζει και στα ελληνικά. Μην το ψάχνουμε.
 
Gotta in typical advertising manner wanted to give the Porsche Cayenne a personality: spicy, fiery and immediately responsive. In these politically correct days you have to put this into Greek sans sexism or racial stereotype. I would perhaps attribute this to the Italian male persona but perhaps this is a ‘dreaded’ racial stereotype and is best left alone untranslated, as SBE wisely implied but this a challenge to you, cougr. Describe such a person then apply it to a souped-up fast car…..
 
SBE said:
Όσο βγάει νόημα στα αγγλικά, τόσο βγάζει και στα ελληνικά. Μην το ψάχνουμε.
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Πάντως, για τους λάτρεις αυτοκινήτων υψηλών επιδόσεων, πρόκειται για βασική, καθημερινή ορολογία. Για αυτούς τουλάχιστον, σίγουρα κάτι σημαίνει.

@Θησέα
As mentioned above, all these terms comprise part of high performance car enthusiasts, basic, everyday terminology/ jargon and are typically used without any discriminatory, racial or otherwise unsavoury connotations.
 
I will enter here a message which I had deleted on the grounds that it may be considered contentious and a bit over the top. It read as follows but after SBE’s characteristically terse and pithy remark perhaps what I wrote previously may be relevant. I wrote this:-

“Point taken, cougr, but in everyday terminology ‘spicy’ is an adjective applied in everyday speech to a certain type of woman. Reddit has a whole article devoted to the term spicy as applied to women [note]. In Britain too we had a group called the ‘spice girls’ with the same ‘sexist’ meanings attached to the word.
I think this is a silly adjective—-to say the least—- to use of women, and Gotta, I’m sure, was well aware of the popular use and metaphorical meaning of it. Maybe ‘spicy’ of women is an adjective used by vacuous men, or certain women who seem keen to apply such an adjective to themselves. Interestingly enough,’proud’ owners of posh ‘high-end cars’ in the UK often refer to their cars as a ‘she’, as do the owners of yachts. But perhaps there a Greek auto site that describes in Greek the Porsche Cayenne in the terms above?
What is far more interesting to me is first to define what it is supposed to imply. ‘Spicy’ is obvious. ‘Spirited’ not so: ζωηρός or φλογερός? Are ‘driving dynamics’ referring to the fact of this car’s easy and immediate response’ to the driver’s whims? Well then notorious cases of some degenerate and (convicted) powerful men spring to mind.
Gotta was a ‘brand naming expert, who may never have driven in any of the vehicles he ‘brand-names’ but he nevertheless was pleased to personify them & apply ambiguous and loaded epithets to describe them and be well paid for it.

As always, cougr, you raise very interesting questions and give useful suggestions as answers. But on a happier note this discussion reminds me of Djokovič’s ‘flair’.
Perhaps in the future we could describe questions of this deliberately vague use of words, or words hard or impossible to translate into Greek like ‘spicy, spirited driving dynamics’ as ‘the Djocovič syndrome.”
Perhaps I am overthinking it and should a moderator feel that this is too much of an unsubstantiated rant, then let that moderator delete it! This is why I deleted it before,
 
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SBE said:
Βασική καθημερινή ορολογία για αυτοκίνητο το "πικάντικο" και το "ζωηρό";
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Στα ελληνικά ίσως όχι αλλά στα αγγλικά μερικοί τις έχουμε ψωμοτύρι. Εννοώ τις λέξεις "spicy" και "spirited", όπως για παράδειγμα στις συμφράσεις παρακάτω.

Spicy:
~performance
~engine
~exhaust
~cam/camshaft
~modifications
~gearbox
~tune-up
~revs
~turbo
και πάει λέγοντας

Spirited:
~driving/drive
~performance
~dynamics
~engine κ.ά.

@Theseus
I welcome your previous post, Theseus (no need to have deleted it or to be deleted), and can understand your viewpoint but I've got a bit of a different take on things - or perhaps a wider perspective - to which I'll come back to at some other point in time.
 
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