Culacino

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LukeJavan8
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Culacino

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:00 pm

Interesting word culled from a list of a few months back:
(originally posted by Bailey)


- mark left on the table by a moist glass - CULACINO
[Italian origin]
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Slava
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Postby Slava » Fri Oct 08, 2010 8:54 pm

I admit I like this word, but I have to quibble with it a bit. Like so many others of our odd-ball suggestions (sorry, Bailey), it doesn't seem to have left much of a trail behind it. And for a word that implies meaning a trail, that's even worse.

I've tried to track this one down on the Internet, but all I've come up with is the same definition, over and over again. Same wording, same vague (It.) reference. No one anywhere has decided to provide an Italian derivation, and no one has ever provided a pronunciation. (I'm assuming ku-LACH-i-no, but I've been known to be wrong.)

Do we have any Italian speakers out there who might feel inclined to weigh in?
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LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:01 pm

I'm inclined to KU-la-CHI-no.
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:10 pm

I'm inclined to KU-la-CHI-no.
If I get this right, you're going for a minor/major stress pattern, perhaps rendered thus: KU-la-CHI-no?
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LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:16 pm

Sure, if it keeps you happy.
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:53 am

Here's another take on the meaning, with a specific tie to our world here:
A drink-ring or circular stain left when a book is used as a coaster for a drinking glass. A handy Italian term which has no one-word English equivalent (and, from the perspective of book people, one of the most useful terms to be found in Howard Rheingold's entertaining book They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases).
http://www.ilab.org/eng/glossary/eng/132-culacino.html

Still no word on the pronunciation, though.

CulAchino or CulacIno?
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Culacino

Postby Audiendus » Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:47 am

I don't speak Italian, but according to Wikizionario (the Italian version of Wiktionary) culacino has two other meanings also:
1. the end (extremity) of a sausage (the circular cut end, perhaps?);
2. [rare] the bottom of a glass.

Wikizionario says it is the diminutive of culaccio, which apparently means a rump of meat. It does not make the pronunciation clear, but I know that the diminutive suffix ino is normally stressed on the 'i' (compare cappuccino). So I think Luke is probably right about the pronunciation.

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Slava
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Re: Culacino

Postby Slava » Sat Oct 09, 2010 12:42 pm

I don't speak Italian, but according to Wikizionario (the Italian version of Wiktionary) culacino has two other meanings also:
1. the end (extremity) of a sausage (the circular cut end, perhaps?);
2. [rare] the bottom of a glass.

Wikizionario says it is the diminutive of culaccio, which apparently means a rump of meat. It does not make the pronunciation clear, but I know that the diminutive suffix ino is normally stressed on the 'i' (compare cappuccino). So I think Luke is probably right about the pronunciation.
I'm leaning to that pronunciation, too. One question I have is why did culacino lose a c?
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Postby saparris » Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:43 pm

I'm not a speaker of Italian, but I found the following explanation, which might explain the double c:

In Italian, all consonants except h can be doubled. Double consonants (i consonanti doppie) are pronounced much more forcefully than single consonants. With double f, l, m, n, r, s, and v, the sound is prolonged; with double b, c, d, g, p, and t, the stop is stronger than for the single

consonant.http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare104a.htm
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LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Oct 09, 2010 10:51 pm

Thanks, Wikisaparris!
You are just a fountain of info, overflowing the ffounttainn.
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Postby saparris » Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:01 pm

You can call me Morton. When I rain, I pour.
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:17 pm

You can call me Morton. When I rain, I pour.
Thanks for your work on figgering some of these clues out. Thou art the salt of the Earth.
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LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:44 pm

It's the Kudzu juleps.
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Postby saparris » Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:59 pm

It's the Kudzu juleps.
And they're leaving culacinos on my desk.
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Slava
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Postby Slava » Sun Oct 10, 2010 12:23 am

And they're leaving culacinos on my desk.
Sounds like someone needs a coaster. Interesting etymology, too. Check it out.

Is the "s" plural the way to go, or would Italian prefer an "i"?
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