Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 September 9

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September 9

Is this an Italian insult?

I do not speak Italian. An editor said "Ma va a quel paese, va!" to me on their talk page. Can I please get a translation and/or explanation of the idiom? Thanks. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 00:16, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

If Google Translate can be trusted, it means "go to that country", an apparent euphemis for "go to hell". Does that fit? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:51, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, that is about what I gathered, Bugs, but I am hoping for the input of a native or very fluent Italian speaker, who may be able to elaborate. Mild insult or forceful insult? Connotations? And so on. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 04:38, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

I'm certainly not native, but I spent a year in Italy. My impression is that it could be mild or strong, depending on context. An equivalent version is va' in Egitto, "go to Egypt", not sure why. It could be a minced oath for either va' all'inferno, "go to Hell", as Bugs suggests, or vaffanculo, which is vulgar and usually fairly strong.

By the way, the apostrophe at the end of va' — and it is an apostrophe, not an accent — is required for the imperative form. Otherwise it would mean he/she/it goes to Egypt. --Trovatore (talk) 07:00, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Just occurred to me, in the context of an argument, it can mean something like "I can't believe you would say something so silly". --Trovatore (talk) 07:14, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Can you comment, ARoseWolf? I just remembered that you speak Italian. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 05:27, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Wiktionary has an entry vai a quel paese, a considerably milder dismissal than vaffanculo.  --Lambiam 10:10, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Its a mild rebuke of sorts but that really depends on the perception of the person. Its very similar to "Go to hell" but looking at context may just mean "Go away". --ARoseWolf 10:15, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

If its a native speaker which I assume it is then it most likely means something like "Get out of here with what you said." Its very mild though. If they wanted to insult you they would have said something more sternly worded. --ARoseWolf 10:19, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Cullen328, I might add, I believe you handled the situation very well. This is one of the reasons that my Papa wouldn't let us speak Italian or Hebrew in public. If you don't speak or understand the language then it can be misconstrued easily, especially if reliant on an online translator. Plus it's just rude, something I didn't understand then but I do now having grown up a little. --ARoseWolf 11:32, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

I'm kind of a native speaker, as other said it's an euphemistic insult, it's not really constructive, but I guess it's quite mild, with some possible regional/contextual variation. There is a song sung by Alberto Sordi named probably "E va'...E va'..." that can be found also as "Te c'hanno mai mannato a quer paese"; it's a bit in Rome dialect and plays on the difference between the literal and figurative meaning. Guess nowaday it's a bit unusual and may indicate a more strong effort to not be offensive, but it's hard to judge out of context (some italians also have the wrong cocept that they can insult foreign people in italian without consequences, when a lot of not italian speaking people know only italian insults/swear words; this can be entartaining if you are not in their company). 31.26.85.7 (talk) 03:34, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

SI prefix for 10^27

Given how long it has been since 2007 (the year of the CGPM that extrapolation suggests is when new SI prefixes should come out) and the lack of practical need, it appears that there never will be an official SI prefix for 10^27. Anyone who disagrees?? Georgia guy (talk) 20:37, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

What is an "SI prefix"? When I see "SI" I think Sports Illustrated. <-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 21:36, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Have you tried looking for SI prefix?  --Lambiam 21:53, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

An OP throwing initialisms around should not assume everyone knows what they mean. <-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 02:01, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

Everyone with a basic science education will known about the SI, the question was obvious. Don't put the blame for your own ignorance on the OP. Fgf10 (talk) 06:12, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

In America, we consider the metric system to be ignorant. <-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 06:26, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

Given the CGPM acronym near the start of the question, either you deliberately diverse the talk from its intended topic or you decide to comment on a subject you have no idea about. Either way the America's ignorance about the topic (even if it was true) does not suffice as an explanation. --CiaPan (talk) 15:52, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

We used strictly the metric system in science classes. Centimeters, grams, etc. Nothing was ever said about SI or CGPM. It was "the metric system". <-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 17:39, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Relevantly--Shirt58 (talk) 05:29, 12 September 2021 (UTC).

We have to call it soccer because we already have a football. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:21, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

(edit conflict) See metric prefix - the term "SI" stands for Système international d'unités. Alansplodge (talk) 21:55, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Without crystal ball, we cannot predict whether a practical need will arise. Apart from any "practical" need (who determines that?), the physical sciences routinely consider physical quantities whose magnitude exceeds 10²⁷. But even assuming an indefinite lack of a need, pronouncements regarding whether no reigning standards body ever will decide to assign another prefix require a combination of predicting, speculating and opining, none of which are suitable at the Reference desk.  --Lambiam 22:04, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

Scientists encounter quantities in the order of 10⁴⁰ to 10⁵⁰ (mass of a galaxy, power output of a black hole merger), but only the prefixes in the range 10^-15 to 10¹⁵ are in common enough use that the average scientist knows them. Most of the time scientists just use scientific notation. Prefixes in the range 10²⁷ to 10⁴² could be used, but it seems unlikely they would be widely used.

BTW, I think that in daily life prefixes for 10^-4 and 10⁴ would be handy, but those were abolished. Like, a fuel consumption of 1 litre per 100 kilometres equals 1 square decimillimetre or whatever prefix that would be. Doing that in square millimetres of square micrometres just doesn't give nice numbers. I would even be happy with prefixes for 10^-5 and 10⁵. Those would be more useful than 10³⁰. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:14, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

The prefix myria- for 10⁴ was abolished, but I've never heard of one for 10^-4 having existed. If you do, please cite. --184.144.99.72 (talk) 19:05, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

On our "Metric prefix" article it says `Other obsolete double prefixes included "decimilli-" (10^-4), which was contracted to "dimi-" and standardized in France up to 1961.' (with sources) -- AnonMoos (talk) 22:42, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

• "Anyone who disagrees??" is an invitation for discussion or debate. We don't do that here. If you want to know the standard SI set of prefixes, you've been told where to find those. If there are SI prefixes you think should exist, but don't, this isn't the place to bring that up. It is also not the place to solicit random opinions on the current state of being. --Jayron32 12:05, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

  I'm merely saying I'm surprised that they don't exist yet. I know the standard set. Georgia guy (talk) 12:23, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

  What do you want us to do about it? I highly doubt that anyone here is a member of the CGPM and has any means by which to propose changes to SI. --Jayron32 13:37, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

  And "I'm surprised" is not a request for information. --184.144.99.72 (talk) 19:05, 10 September 2021 (UTC)