La Macchina

[poliphilo]

Yes, those new neighbours, they're certainly Italian. I heard one of them use an Italian word I recognize. La Macchina. Car.

Interesting the difference between those two words in the two languages. The English car- meaning chariot- assimilates the new to the old, smoothing over the transition between technologies, suggesting to the woolgathering English mind that horses are somehow still involved. The Italian word- macchina- bravely embraces the new. No horses here- (we have shot the horses and eaten them)-  this is like nothing you've seen before-  a machine.  In the north: cloudiness, ambiguity, sentiment.  In the south: clarity, forthrightness, Futurismo.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Somewhat along those lines, of course, is the word which saw widespread usage in the US, though has largely ceded to the more abbeviated "car" as well: automobile. One might argue there's been something of a popular culture shift in that time, also, with a much stronger sense of curiosity in the 1950s, versus arguably a more strained, even fearful outlook, despite the lack of the Soviet boogieman now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I remember "auto" having some currency but I don't think I've heard it lately.

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

You've got to love the word 'horsepower', though? I want a spaceship that measures its power in amount of horses it would take to pull it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Gosh, but that would be a lot of horses.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Perhaps for spaceship purposes 1000 horsepower = 1 Phaeton?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes!

[resonant.livejournal.com]

"Horsepower" was a deliberate anachronism for marketing purposes. And totally inaccurate today, as most horses are just pampered playthings rather than draught animals - they probably couldn't exert half the power of an 18th-century horse.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

And now F T Marinetti and friends willl get drunk and wreck la macchina in a ditch before writing the Futurist Manifesto!

[veronikos.livejournal.com]

Italian: "il carro" = shopping cart.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That makes me happy :)