I need a phrase similar to "screwed the pooch." Two of my wizards have seriously messed up. As in completely misinterpreted a prophesy, currently have the MC half a continent away from where she is supposed to be, and they are chasing after the wrong group of people. The third wizard shows up and says, "You two have really screwed the pooch this time." Unfortunately, 'screwed the pooch' feels too modern and doesn't fit with the flow of the book. If I change it back to the original, "You've fucked the dog," it reads better. The problem with that is I didn't use a single swear word in the first book and at 40K I've not employed one in the second either, so 'fucked the dog' sticks out like a sore thumb. This is complicated by the fact that I need an animal reference because the phrase needs to remind one of the wizards of the time Loki was a horse. The story is at a tipping point which is dependent on remembering that event. I'd be open to any archaic 'screwed the pooch' type phrases you can offer. (Reference need not be limited to dogs, however, it would be helpful if it didn't directly mention a horse.)
'You two have really ballsed up' ...ditto 'cocked up','messed up','made a booboo','dropped a clanger','blundered big time' or...to keep the canine theme: 'made a dog's dinner of it'
Have you got any that involve animals and sex? I like 'ballsed up' but there is no animal attached to that. One of my favorites (which won't work here) is, "Democrats are like cats. It sounds like they're fighting, but really they're just making more Democrats!"
How does everyone feel about this phrase: "It seems you two have been out milking the bull." It's not exactly sexual, but it might work.
"Dropped the ball" "fell on your face" "made a mess of" "shit the bed" "gummed up the works" "crashed and burned"
Assuming you mean, screwed up, and you have wizards in a sexless society, that shouldn't be too hard. Kissed the wrong toad Fell off the broomstick Opened the demon's cage Lost your wand
Um, er, * digs deep into his animal profanisaurus... For screwing the pooch, how about 'dipped the wick in the doggy', 'gave the dog a bone'? Or to widen the mammalian choice; 'boned the bear','laid the llama','humped the camel','jiggery-poked the porker','mingled limbs with the lambs' Enough now, or I'll need therapy. Ok, one more. 'Waxed the ass's ass'.
*doubles over laughing reading that thread* You guys are awesome, I can't say it often enough! There I am, seriously depressed to the point of tears by the last two scenes I've had to write and worse to come and you go and make me laugh. Seriously! We are all screwed!
KhalieLa, remember the fifteen hundred words we know of proto-Celtic are the ones we have been able to reconstruct from very limited sources. This was a largely, if not entirely, unwritten language, so there are probably quite a few words, including very many for sex, that have been lost for all time. I don't think there is any society that lacks words for this most primordial act. That said, 'milking the bull" sounds like the best of breed here, and really captures the idea of a big and very obvious mistake with serious consequences.
To throw a late spanner in and keeping down the animal route: "Looks like you idiots have been sat around waiting for the cock to lay" "You two could find a pig and assume someone had shorn the bleeding sheep for you!" Or do you want to specifically include some notion of sex in the reference?
Nt sure of the transliteration... * but a glottal stp wouldn't fit before a consonant. V is that a V or a W or short u UH? Biodo, or something like that? I will have to think on that
In my dictionary it's a V not a W. The V is a stand in for a vowel, but no idea which one. All five vowels appear in the language in both the long and short form, plus there is a usage of y. It's not a stop. In my dictionary stops are W. blVdV is very similar to bleda, year, but there are no other similar words near it. In the notes it says evolution into Goidelic is bled, monster, large animal (whale?). The semantic motivation is the same as in Latin lupa from lupus. The Goidelic word might actually be a calque of the Latin word. There is suggestion that blVd- is borrowed from a non-IE substrate. Proto-Celtic has words for demon, mora & sebro-, but those don't seem to match at all. The word for bear is arto-; wolf is waili. I assume Latin has more loan words simply because they came into contact with more people. (Only about 6% of proto-Celtic is loan words.) I was just wondering if you have any weird words for monster/preditor that might fit here.
Hi, How about something like: Wiz 1: Wow, you two have really been humping the wrong end of the bear! I'm surprised you have any body parts left! Wiz 2: Indignant: I'd never get the wrong end! Wiz 1: Sighs heavily and rolls eyes: Why don't I believe you?! "Wiz 2: Well there was that time I tried the brown mushrooms! Couldn't see anything for days! Wiz 3: Laughing: You couldn't piss straight either! And you wanted to do unspeakable things to the mule! I don't think he's ever forgotten. Cheers, Greg.
I think just use bleda as it is easier for the readers to get their tongues around it, and you can just translate it as monster, simpler is better. Give them the atmosphere, but don't asphyxiate them with it.
This has no play at all in the book, I'm just curious. I mean, if it's not wolf or bear, what is it? Since it evolves in to prostitute I started look for people words, but they have a very distinct word for madman/lunatic, g(w)elti-.
Perhaps you know this already "Studies in British Celtic Phonology," by Peter Schrijvner, has variations on Bled as both wolf and sea monster. Results from a Google Search on Proto Cetlic Monster, but I can cut or paste anything into this site including links.
