nemam reči - P

Šta je ovo?
Događalo mi se ponekad da baš moram da prevedem nešto sa srpskog na engleski, i udarim glavom o zid, kako i priliči prevodiocu. Jedan od tih zidova su reči koje ama nikako ne postoje u engleskom, nego mora okolo.

Ako umete da pročitate ovaj tekst, onda vam objašnjenje tih reči ne treba - ali treba za anglofone čitaoce, a i da malo proverite jesam li ih valjano objasnio. Oko nekih sam konsultovao te anglofonce, neke su tako i nestale sa spiska, a oko većine pomoći nema.
23-V-2006 - 16-III-2024 idi kući  
Reč koje nema
opisni prevod na engleski
pijaca
market is the word... except that it isn't. That word predominantly means market in general - that's "tržište", as in "free market". Nope, "pijaca" is the specific place in a city or other place (town, village) where goods are sold.
green market - again, not good enough, because the greenery is only one section of a pijaca - there's also the dairy hall, the artizanat section, the smugglers' section, and the sections are mostly not clearly partitioned.
plod
fruit (of something), but then if this is the word for it, how do we call fruit? „Plod“ is the fruit, which may come from a plant, uterus or just any productive labor (or wrath, for that matter - the „grapes of wrath“ was translated as „plodovi gneva“). This also includes vegetables bearing it, including tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons - anything where the edible part grows where its flower was. And these aren't fruits even in english.
Fruit as a type of food growing on fruit trees (voćke) is called voće as a group.
ploviti
to navigate - nope, you can ploviti and have no idea where you are going; it should mean move while afloat
steer - even worse, because even completely unsteerable devices do this
podatak
A piece of data. There's "data", in plural, and there's "datum" but nobody uses it. I would, but who'd understand it?
Piece of information. Too long.
Data point. Not even a nice try, this is clumsy. But I see it's gaining traction, and coming into wider use.
Datum. Which would actually be correct, data is the plural of datum ("a given"), but in english this word means the referential point from which the altitude is measured (in geography and aviation, for instance), so it already means something else.
data item - just as clumsy. Imagine saying "wheat item" just because you don't have a word for grain. HFEA in the UK uses this.
podočnjaci
bags under one's eyes - don't tell me this is so rare a thing that it doesn't deserve a word. This is a clinical description, made worse by mandatory mention of owner. If you are already describing one person, and one's face, why, oh, why do you have to say towhose eyes these bags belong?
podšišati se, ošišati se
"to have a haircut" is not a verb. This is.
podvaljak
double chin - which is ridiculous as an expression; there aren't two jaws, and what if there are three or four?
pogledati
Take a look. It includes "pogledaću tamo" (I will take a look there) without the danger of anyone attempting a wisecrack about "if it's too heavy for you to take it there, let me help you".
pokvariti
Make unfunctional. Cause to stop working. Spoil. Introduce a malfunction. And no, "break" doesn't count - no fractures are necessary.
Cause to malfunction... sort of close, if you count "doesn't work at all". But then "pokvariti se" can't be "caused itself to malfunction", can it?
pokvariti se
Same as "pokvariti" but reflexive. "Pokvario se" - it developed a malfunction, it broke, it stopped working.
Also, with milk or other perishable foods, when they become unedible, they "se pokvare".
poskupeti
to become more expensive
potiljak
back of one's neck - is a location, not a notion; potiljak is the surface of the neck on its back side.
Nape of one's neck - if "of... neck" needs to be specified, that means that there can be a nape of something else as well. Not good enough, "potiljak" is exactly and unambiguously that part of neck and nothing else, regardless of ownership too.
potpitanje
A subquestion. That's the additional question which helps the questioned answer the main question - as during an exam. Subquestion would work as a translation if it was understood in this manner.
prekjuče
the day before yesterday
too short
the other day
I like the use of definite article. There are only two days in existence, this day and the other one.
prekosutra
the day after tomorrow
see prekjuče
preksinoć
the evening before the last
see sinoć
primerak
specimen - yes and no, it means an exemplary sample of something, not juse one out of a series; can't be used as unit of measure ("...was printed in 40000 specimens" is wrong)
copy - wrong again, it says "this is not the original", and "primerak" covers any one out of a series of the same item (book, car, newspaper - and the latter aren't a product of copying from some supposed original)
exemplar
would be correct if it wasn't meaning „example“, which is only half correct.
pritom
Means the same thing as "in the process", except that it doesn't need any kind of process to work. Literally, "at that" or "during that".
prohodati
to acquire the skill of walking, as a baby or when relearning it
similarly, propevati - to start singing (actually mostly means „to start confessing stuff under interrogation“), prozviždati - to start whistling (but mostly means that jam has developed a fungal culture which emits gases), proneti - start laying eggs.
prolaznik
A passer-by... if there was such a word. If there is, what's the plural, please?
promet
Throughput is the most approximate translation so far, but the word actually means all the transactions (sales and acquisitions, payments in either direction) taken as a whole. In Croatian it also means traffic; the derived adjective "prometan" is used in Serbian as well to denote a busy street.
prometna tabela
transactional table
look „promet“ above - anything that happens and is registered goes into such tables, even when there was absolutely no transaction between any two entities. Even event logs are such traffic tables.
prozvati
give a nickname (to)
call (somebody) by name
do the roll call
psovka
curse - nope, that's only an invocation of bad fate upon somebody; there are other forms of "psovka" which do not involve "may you". Many times it takes a form of past tense meaning future (as in "I [will] have fucked your mother")
cuss - that's primarily a person, and secondarily foul language, so it doesn't mean "psovka"
expletive - is a term in grammar, and an adjective on top of it, not a noun per se.
swearword - not applicable, a "psovka" is usually a whole sentence, or a phrase
bad language - not applicable either, it's an euphemism, while "psovka" is exactly the unambiguous term to denote the foul thing being said.
oath - can be confused with a solemn oath, a vow, while "psovka" is... well, can't express that in english.