Guess fencing terminology!

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Some fencing terms are quite similar from language to language, but there are also those that are spelled quite differently. I was talking about this one with another fencer, we were guessing whether non-Swedish fencers would be able to guess some terms.

So, can you guess these in the list below? Don´t cheat! No dictionary, and fencers who speak or read other languages than English are at an unfair advantage!

Värja
Snärtstöt
Svänghugg
Sabeloktavparad
Spetshylsa
Kroppsledning
Blodskåra
Handtag
Golvvinda

Anybody elsehave arcane fencing terminology that is hard to guess in their language, which they can test our linguistic ingenuity with?

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Pierfrancesco]

so thats what they're saying on those tapes

[Sarah]

Don't laugh, I'm doing this on pure gussing. I think that this launguage is either German or Polish. (I speak neither yet)

Värja - (unknown?
Snärtstöt - attack?
Svänghugg - corps a corps
Sabeloktavparad - parry/riposte
Spetshylsa -
Kroppsledning -
Blodskåra
Handtag - flick?
Golvvinda

Hopefully I got something right, if not, oh well. 'Try, try again.

[Mischa]

Isn't it Swedish?

[Sarah]

Maybe, I don't know much about these languages yet. (I'm only learning Russian now.) lol

[KBayDog]

Will any of these terms help me meet Swedish women?

[Mischa]

"Oh baby, let me parry repost your flick"

[Lemberg]

Well the only one I am confident about is Sabeloktavparad - gotta be parry 8 (octave) in sabre Handtag - obviously something to do with a hand tag/ touch Some of teh words seem familiar to my native Russian but these similarities make no sense in fencing, so I guess tehy are wrong Kroppslending - touch on the body or corps-a-corps??? Well I tried.

[wflaschka]

Sabeloktavparad -- I saw "sabel" and thought sabre; "oktav parad" does indeed seem parry 8.

Handtag -- Touch on the hand? As in, "You tagged me!"

Snärtstöt -- "tot" = death; "snart" = dreams. Therefore Snärtstöt = Death of all ambition.

Svänghugg -- "Sväng" = Swedish girl (like "babe"); "hugg" = hug. Svänghugg = Hug that swedish babe. (imperative).

Värja -- Stopping a marching attack with a point in line, then taking over the attack, running down the opponent and hitting on the flank. They do a lot of that, which is why it's a short word.

Okay... I got nothing.

[Capt. Slo-mo]

OK, let's see:

Värja: Swedish for touche...used as guttural sound upon impact of weapon tip to target

Snärtstöt: a small kid who got an "E" fencing six other 7 year olds at the winter tournament in Sfortsbargenvinda

Svänghugg: A celebratory move named for famous Swedish fencer Oleg Svang. Upon victory, he would grab his opponent in an over-under bear hug and whirl him into the air, much like a Lindy Hop overhead dance move. Unfortunately, after the advent of electrified fencing, Oleg failed to allow for the reel wires, and a fatality occurred during the ensuing tangle. Svang dropped from Swedish fencing, and now runs an ABBA-impersonators nightclub in Stockholm.

Sabeloktavparad: This is a medical term. When a fencer takes up saber (sabel), his/her shrieking has been noticed to rise by a full octave (oktav) in pitch when successfully making a parry (parad). First noted in the May, 1998 Finnish Journal of Medicine "Dyr Reindeeryn Gazettyn."

Spetshylsa: a binding move, where the defender takes the oncoming attack, circles 6 two times, and allows the attacker to impale himself on the extended blade. The suffix "lsa" usually denotes an action or movement done with three or less fingers raised on the non-weapon hand.

Kroppsledning: This term is clearly a red herring on Peter's part. It has nothing to do with fencing, but is instead a term of ridicule for someone who fails to sufficiently duck while tobogganing under low-hanging branches. If the emphasis is on the syllable "sledn", it implies loss of a hat made from fur, usually pine martin. If the emphasis is on "Kropp" it typically corresponds to loss of head.

Blodskåra: a pejorative term, literally, "person shaped like a pickled herring who faints at the sight of blood." Most commonly heard muttered by Swedish sabre fencers when first entering an all-foil venue.

Handtag: Archaic Swedish term for a meteorological phenomenom in the northern forests where the winter sun never rises about ankle level. Combines "hand" (a Swedish root word meaning foot) with "tag" (a co-opted Germanic term for day), literally meaning "foot-day", as in one must get down to foot level to stare directly at the sun.

Golvvinda: A frequent excuse for a phantom touch in electric sabre. This term takes the verb form "go" which translates as "because of" or "this happened from" and the noun lvvinda, which, as every elementary school Swedish child knows, is a cyclonic winter wind entering a building when one or more doors have been left open. Hence golvinvinda means: "That touch happened because the wind blew my lame onto your passe attack." Listen for it at the next World Cup where there is a Swedish sabre fencer competing.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Got more answers than I had expected! (many snips below)

Captn. Slo-Mo wrote:
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>Kroppsledning: This term is clearly a red herring on Peter's part.
On the contrary - this *is* a fencing noun!

>Blodskåra: a pejorative term, literally, "person shaped like a >pickled herring who faints at the sight of blood."

Blood was right.

>Handtag: Archaic Swedish term for a meteorological >phenomenom in the northern forests where the winter sun >never rises about ankle level. Combines "hand" (a Swedish root >word meaning foot) with "tag" (a co-opted Germanic term for >day), literally meaning "foot-day", as in one must get down to >foot level to stare directly at the sun.
Hand is the same in Swedish and English, not surprising since both are Germanic languages (the English words "window" and "tungsten" are both of Swedish origin, but neither of them look like that in present Swedish.) The note about sun altitude is correct, where I did a project for my PhD. the sun sets every Dec 8th, and rises again in Jan 2nd. I leave as an exercise to the reader to figure out what that does for local alcohol consumption.


>Golvvinda: <hilarious stuff snipped> Listen for it at the next >World Cup where there is a Swedish sabre fencer competing.

Doubt it. The Swedish Championships are being held the comming weekend, and MS has AFAIK attracted a grand total of 4 competitors.
---------

Wflaschka wrote:
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>Sabeloktavparad -- I saw "sabel" and thought sabre; "oktav >parad" does indeed seem parry 8.

Right! this was my trick question. I thought that putting in a term that seems so simple to translate, yet means something so arcane (quiz - when was the latest time you saw the sabre parry 8 done in a competition? How many sabre fencers would know *how* to do it, for that matter?) I would trick people to wonder if it did not mean something more common. You did not fall for that.

>Handtag -- Touch on the hand? As in, "You tagged me!"
Actually, the "tag" part is fairly similar to its English translation.

>Snärtstöt -- "tot" = death; "snart" = dreams. Therefore >Snärtstöt = Death of all ambition.
"Snärt" is similar to its English translation, while "stöt" is similar to its German translation.

>Svänghugg -- "Sväng" = Swedish girl (like "babe"); "hugg" = >hug. Svänghugg = Hug that swedish babe. (imperative).
As above - sväng-hugg


>Okay... I got nothing.
No 1 right, and since you obviously know at least some german, figuring out the rest might not be impossible.

Lemberg wrote:
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>Well the only one I am confident about is Sabeloktavparad - >gotta be parry 8 (octave) in sabre

Correct!

>Some of teh words seem familiar to my native Russian but these >similarities make no sense in fencing, so I guess tehy are wrong

Spasiba for that info - tell me which they are, and I will run them past my dad. (When he was drafted, which all Sw. men are, he was chosen to study Russian.)

>Kroppslending - touch on the body or corps-a-corps??? Well I >tried.
Body is correct.
--------

kbaydog wrote:
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Will any of these terms help me meet Swedish women?
-------

If they are fencers it can´t hurt. Otherwise - fencing is not a sport that one gets gals with in Sweden - try soccer, Ice Hockey for good results.

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[Jupiter]

[quote]Originally posted by PeterGustafsson
[b]Hi!

Some fencing terms are quite similar from language to language, but there are also those that are spelled quite differently. I was talking about this one with another fencer, we were guessing whether non-Swedish fencers would be able to guess some terms.

So, can you guess these in the list below? Don´t cheat! No dictionary, and fencers who speak or read other languages than English are at an unfair advantage!
------------------------------------
OKAY: I'LL ENDEAVER TO DO MY BEST:

Värja - fence
Snärtstöt -engarde
Svänghugg - halt
Sabeloktavparad - someone else wrote: 8parry riposte
Spetshylsa - off target
Kroppsledning - stop sleding and fence
Blodskåra - touche
Handtag - contact
Golvvinda - there are chocolates in the back


thanks again for another lively post.

[Sarah]

Hi! My name is Kate I'm Sarah's sister the only reason I'm using sarah's name is that mine is not up yet. I don't fence but I tryed it and I understand it because Sarah Talks about it all the time. My screen name will be Vienna. But u can call me Kate.

[Sarah]

I've gtg Bye Kate

[muaddib]

Hi Peter,

I'm american, but living in denmark, so I'll try my bad danish and see if I can guess your words:

Värja = Epee

Snärtstöt snärt - stöt = Touché - so it must be some specially delivered touché

Svänghugg Sväng = Swing and hug = blow with the sharp edge of a sabre

Spetshylsa Spet = Spear (I think) Hylsa = holster (?) must be some kind of weapon-bag or something

Kroppsledning = body cord

Blodskåra Blod = Blood & Kåra = Epee - soo, blood-epee, never heard about it

Handtag = Handle
Golvvinda = Roller/reel

How'd I do? Now I see why danes don't understand swedes!

- Mike

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally posted by muaddib
Hi Peter,

I'm american, but living in denmark, so I'll try my bad danish and see if I can guess your words:

Värja = Epee

Snärtstöt snärt - stöt = Touché - so it must be some specially delivered touché

Svänghugg Sväng = Swing and hug = blow with the sharp edge of a sabre

Spetshylsa Spet = Spear (I think) Hylsa = holster (?) must be some kind of weapon-bag or something

Kroppsledning = body cord

Blodskåra Blod = Blood & Kåra = Epee - soo, blood-epee, never heard about it

Handtag = Handle
Golvvinda = Roller/reel

How'd I do? Now I see why danes don't understand swedes!

- Mike

By far best result, which should be expected with your advantage. For a Swede to read Danish is fairly simple, but understanding *spoken* Danish is a totally different thing. I will give the explanations below.

Värja is indeed epee - the word "vaerge", meaning battle sword, is in the text of the Danish national anthem. (I posted the entire text, with English translation, on r.s.f. years ago. Heady stuff.)

Snärt-snöt - compare with the English/German translation snap-stoSS -> snapthrust. This means flick.

Sväng-hugg - compare with English/German translation swing-hieb -> swingcut. A sabre cut with is delivered with the shoulder and elbow, and the wrist is kept still, or nearly so, during the entire cut and also during the followthrough - the blade does not bounce on the opponent. Extensively treated in older fencing manuals.

Spets-hylsa: point-holder -> barrel

Bodycord is correct.

Blodskåra -> bloodgroove

Handtag -> hand-take -> handle

Golvvinda -> floor windup -> floor reel

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[KBayDog]

PG -

Probably a "Water Cooler" discussion, so feel free to move it if need be...

Originally posted by PeterGustafsson
For a Swede to read Danish is fairly simple, but understanding *spoken* Danish is a totally different thing.

Just how different are the languages / cultures / people in your area? I spent a good portion of my life in the WestPac region; the North Atlantic is still pretty foreign to me. I met a lovely Swedish gal the other day, and if there are more like her, I will be visiting the region VERY soon

Mahalo!

KBD

[Sarah]

KBayDog:

Are you from Hawaii? Just wondering...

[muaddib]

KBaydog,

You asked "Just how different are the languages / cultures / people in your area?"

As an american looking in, Norway, Sweden, Denmark are very similar. The language is close (same roots) but I can hear the difference. Danish is very flat and spoken in the throat, Swedish and Norwedian are more up and down in tone. To me, the cultures are the same, but to the danes and swedes, who have a long history of fighting, they see themselves quite different. The women in all 3 countries are fantastic!! If you like tall, blonde, blue eyes, athletic women, that is. If you are single, get on a plane !! They like americans and love speaking english....well, before the war they did....now the american reputation is in the dog house.

Beer in sweden is very explensive, so the young swedes come over on the ferry, and drink until they can't walk, and do silly things like all young drunk people do. So the danes love to make jokes about drunken swedes. Peter will have to tell you what the swedes say about the danes.

In general, scandinavians are friendly, nature-loving, thinking-of-others, passivists, well educated, ...... and 99 percent of the population in denmark VOTES. Can you imagine 99 percent of americans voting??!! (heck 99 percent can't even read!)

Mike

[KBayDog]

MD,

I guess I will have to make it my duty to improve foreign relations (with the ladies, that is )

You have me convinced. I am so there. Do you rent out floor space in Arrakis?