That's a rather mild translation, innit

"Death to tyrants" would have been a feistier but still accurate rendition.

Meh fact of the day

"Meh" might come from the Yiddish, via the Simpsons. From the Oxford English Dictionary:

Etymology: Probably <  Yiddish me be it as it may, so-so (1928 or earlier), probably imitative.
Probably popularized by the U.S. cartoon series The Simpsons , in which its earliest use was in the episode Sideshow Bob Roberts , first broadcast on 9 Oct. 1994.

三十六计，走为上计

sauver: to save or rescue.
se sauver: to bolt or run away.

To discover

 ... to push a little farther back the foamy line of language, to make it encroach upon that sandy region that is still open to the clarity of perception but is already no longer so to everyday speech---to introduce language into that penumbra where the gaze is bereft of words. An arduous, delicate work; a work that reveals, as Laennec revealed distinctly, outside the confused mass of scirrhi, the first cirrhotic liver in the history of medical perception.

(Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith, 169)

Ambivalent

is an imperfect word that doesn't describe how it's possible to have a variety of stances toward things ... a coarse simplification of the complex feelings toward others that toss and turn inside people, toward their native country, toward all that is.

Disinvigorate

Just a unnecessarily convoluted way of saying "weaken", or different and a useful addition to the English language? Discuss.

Paz, esperanza y alegria

Absolutely the same thing as peace, hope, and joy. Except not. Except yes. Except not. Except ...

Translation Exercise #43

Karpuz yiyesim geldi.
我～要～吃～西～瓜～！

o·ti·ose

/ˈōSHēˌōs/ adjective

1. Serving no practical purpose or result. 
2. Indolent; idle.

Idiomatic Slippage

Now I wish I had been there.
Şimdi burada olduğumu istiyorum. "Now I want to have been there"

现在想想，真遗憾当时不在场。
Burada olmadığıma biraz üzülüyorum şimdi. "Now my not having been there saddens me a little."

It's funny how the most natural way of translating counterfactual wishes from English into Chinese seems to be to turn them into regrets. Or maybe that tinge of regret was always lying just beneath the surface of "I wish I had"? 

And then of course I have no idea about the idiomatic way of saying such things in Turkish. Both of those sentences might just sound downright strange to a native speaker ... 

A Murder of Crows

Just in case "a group of crows" didn't sound ominous enough. Crows are probably just really maligned though. Such a bad rap just for being black and cawing ...

You're special ... so what?

Somehow 特殊 or 特别 just doesn't carry the same set of positive connotations that "special" can in English. (Particularly American English and its descendants, I suppose.) The Chinese doesn't carry any particularly negative connotations, it's just ... not so special. Something is an exceptional case. Okay. No big deal.

Considering how all of those are [seem to be] born from similar etymologies, I guess it's probably a product of cultural and social attitudes more than a linguistic thing.

But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought

Well put, sir. Very. 

Muffin

... possibly from muffen Lower German for  "small cakes", or somehow connected with moufflet Old French for "soft". Who cares as long as it's tasty, right?
Guess that's also why food names generally don't translate well across long distances. Because there's just too much of a connection to the place and culture.

Metacynicism

The ancient Cynics regarded virtue (Arete) as the only necessity for happiness. They sought to free themselves from conventions, become self-sufficient, and live only in accordance with nature. They rejected any conventional notions of happiness involving money, power, or fame, in the pursuit of virtuous, and thus happy, lives. In rejecting conventional social values, they would criticise the types of behaviours, such as greed, which they viewed as causing suffering. Emphasis on this aspect of their teachings led, in the late 18th and early 19th century, to the modern understanding of cynicism as "an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others." This modern definition of cynicism is in marked contrast to the ancient philosophy, which emphasized "virtue and moral freedom in liberation from desire."

Career, Carrera

Inherently unseparable from the rat race. Bah humbug.

Limerence

"It has no roots whatsoever. It looks nice. It works well in French. Take it from me it has no etymology whatsoever."

Cathedral

The site of the cathedra, the seat of knowledge and wisdom and learning.

Bohemian

Because the first gypsies in France were taken for followers of Jan Hus, the heretic from Bohemia, various painters and poets were still labeled bohemian to this day. An amalgamation of prejudices based on a misunderstanding, it did not come better than that, and the fact that poets had been identified with vagrants, gypsies, and heathens was pretty good, too. 

(Cees Nooteboom, from Musings in Munich, in Nomad's Hotel)

Cathedral

A sanctuary, serene and cloistered, for the mind and soul. But also a wide open forum, a soaring invitation clothed in elegance and majesty for all to see, apparent but never loud. Conferre Castle