I came across the Czech word zženštilý yesterday among translations of soft and the pile up of consonants got me wondering whether it was a real word or a typo. I discovered that it is a real word and means: soft, epicene, girly-girly, namby-pamby, nance, effeminate, effeminize, emasculate, pansy, soft, softish, unmanly, womanish, womanlike, sissified [source].
Related words include:
– zženštilec = effeminize
– zženštilost = effeminacy, unmanliness, womanishness
– zženštit = to womanize
These words often have negative connotations in English. Do they have similar connotations in Czech and other languages? Are there any languages in which such words have positive connotations?
Other Czech words for soft include:
– poddajný = soft, flexible, pliant, docile
– pozvolný = soft, gentle, gradual, insidious
– jemný = soft, bland, delicate, elegant, pigeon-hearted, sheer, silken, tender, fine, gentle, mild, milky
– měkký = soft, compliant, crumbly, downy, pulpy, smooth, tender, flabby, flaccid, meek, mild
– slabý = soft, weak, bloodless, complaisant, effete, washy, weak, weakly, shallow, small
– mírný = soft, tranquil, balmy, clement, pacific, peaceable, peaceful, reasonable, restful, gentle, lenient, meek, mild
– vlácný = soft, plastic, pliant, supple
– něžný = soft, subtle, pigeon-hearted, silky, sweet, tender, affectionate, caressing, delicate, fond, gentle, milky
– nezpevněný = soft, unconsolidated, unpaved, washy
– hebký = soft, smooth, downy, velvety, fleecy
What I was looking for was soft as in not hard (of material), so I think the first one, poddajný, is probably the one I want, or maybe měkký.
The connotations of “zženštilý” are certainly negative and the word can’t be used to describe material, except perhaps in a post-modern surrealist poetry. I am surprised that soft is offered among its translations. “Zženštilý” simply means effeminate; while effeminacy certainly has some semantic overlap with softness, they can hardly be considered synonyms. Also, “zženštilec” and “effeminize” aren’t good translations of each other, at least because the former is a noun and the latter is a verb.
I would translate soft, as of material, as “měkký”. “Poddajný” could be used, although here docile is the most common meaning. Some of the offered translations are indeed strange (using “mírný” in place of reasonable or translating “jemný” as pigeon-hearted would likely produce hilarious results).
Online dictionaries often list translations in random order, sometimes having the usual closest match lost in between words that can be used to translate the item only in rare and improbable contexts. I find that pretty annoying.
Also, for initial consonant cluster enthusiasts, may I suggest Russian “жжёт”, Polish “źdźbło” and older Czech “ssát”? Unfortunately the last one has been written with a single “s” since 1960s.
Interestingly enough, in Polish we still have the word “ssać” written with double “s”. A few other flashy consonant clusters could be “pszczoła” (bee), “trzmiel” (bumble bee), “zrzucać” (to throw off), “knedle” (dumplings), “knur” (male pig), “gdzie” (where), or “kminek” (cumin seed)
One more fun word in Polish: “źdźbło” (stalk, stem, blade of grass).
Initial cluster orgy! Dźgnąć “to stab”, tknąć “to touch”, ssać “to suck”, zzuć (old-fash.) “to take off shoes”, zstąpić “to descend”, dżdżownica “earthworm”, lgnąć “to cling, to flock (to)”, drgnąć “to budge”, Gwda [a river].
German has the neutral weiblich, “female”, as well as the (somewhat old-fashioned) weibisch, which has negative connotations similar to zženštilý. They’re both transparently derived from Weib (which just meant “woman” in older German, but outside of fixed archaic contexts like wedding vows is now derogatory itself).
I think Georgian still wins at initial consonant clusters — the popular example is mc’vrtneli (“trainer”), but wikipedia also offers gvbrdgvni (“you tear us”), and clusters of three or four consonants are very common overall, since many morphemes are just single consonants, the language is agglutinating, and stems have a CVC structure to begin with. Including Caucasian languages may not be fair competition though.
I think Salishan languages beat everything with entire words being consonant clusters but we were just talking about Slavic stuff here. There are also Austroasiatic languages with formidable initial clusters due to derivational processes such as copying the initial and final consonants of the root and directly prefixing them to it. I’ve come across examples which look more disturbing than Georgian clusters to me (not due to their sheer length but the utter disregard for sonority hierarchy/any combining rules).