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It never occurred to me that this might be a language problem, but I do find it somehow hilarious to imagine a Dutch person saying that (assuming you've translated the sentence literally). This makes me wonder how, shall we say, zany we must generally appear to the Dutch. It also makes me wonder how many other such misunderstandings are lurking under the surface with continental Europeans who appear (damn you) to have native-speaker-level command of English.


I do my best, but there isn't a week that I don't put my foot in my mouth in some form or other.

For instance the 'zany' in the text above I had to look up, and even after looking up it doesn't make much sense to me.

1) a subordinate clown or acrobat in old comedies who mimics ludicrously the tricks of the principal

2) a slavish follower

3) one who acts the buffoon to amuse others

None of the three are a preferred candidate when I do a simple substitution.


Zany just means wacky. It's an older word (deriving, I just learned, from commedia dell'arte). I was looking (jokingly) for a euphemism to approximate your implicit category of this-person-is-either-crazy-or-smoking-something.


Ok, thanks!


gruseom was using "zany" as an adjective, rather than as a noun. If I am the person in definition #3, then I am acting like a buffoon and I am very "zany".




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