Language desk
< July 4	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 6 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 5[edit]

Which variety of Serbo-Croatian is this?[edit]

Which variety of Serbo-Croatian is this?

http://www.chelseaschools.com/cps/uploads/docs/pic/%2803-04%29.Registration%20Requirements.Serbo-Croatian.pdf

Bosnian? Serbian? Croatian? WhisperToMe (talk) 10:05, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Croatian.--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 12:34, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! WhisperToMe (talk) 13:32, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

lash out in the greyness of the room[edit]

Would you explain for me the exact meaning of the phrase "lash out" in the following sentence: "The uncoordinated colors combined in turmoil and lashed out in the greyness of the room." Here "colors" refers to those of furniture. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.128.180.177 (talk) 11:53, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's pretty purely subjectivistic, but apparently there has been an attempt to "brighten up" a room by adding in some vividly colored items, and the narrator's eyes are offended by the result... AnonMoos (talk) 13:21, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

To "lash out" is to react suddenly and violently to something that has provoked your anger. The author is treating the colours of the furniture as a mtaphorically violent reaction to the dullness of the room. --Nicknack009 (talk) 14:04, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This reminds me quite strongly of the review of the Modernist apartment building the Enright House designed by Architect Howard Roark in Rand's The Fountainhead: "...AND there it will stand, as a monument to nothing but the egotism of Mr. Enright and of Mr. Roark. It will stand between a row of brownstone tenements on one side and the tanks of a gashouse on the other. This, perhaps, is not an accident, but a testimonial to fate’s sense of fitness. No other setting could bring out so eloquently the essential insolence of this building. It will rise as a mockery to all the structures of the city and to the men who built them. Our structures are meaningless and false; this building will make them more so. But the contrast will not be to its advantage. By creating the contrast it will have made itself a part of the great ineptitude, its most ludicrous part. If a ray of light falls into a pigsty, it is the ray that shows us the muck and it is the ray that is offensive. Our structures have the great advantage of obscurity and timidity. Besides, they suit us. The Enright House is bright and bold. So is a feather boa. It will attract attention--but only to the immense audacity of Mr. Roark’s conceit. When this building is erected, it will be a wound on the face of our city. A wound, too, is colorful."

μηδείς (talk) 17:54, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

what's with this torrent of queries asking to explain what I'd condider are fairly basic and transparent metaphors? this is freaking irritating, all the more so as you seem to have an otherwise very good command of the English language. You should be able to grasp all the stuff you're asking about without help. Is it just you, or is it cultural, or are you trolling WP? (metaphors highlighted using italics for your convenience) PS note to self: stop lashing out (hurr-durr) at peopleAsmrulz (talk) 00:55, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]