#language fandom

found this on a dorm room door during a college visit and i’m c r y i n g

Estonian, what the fuck.

Hey, sorry, missed this. Not that this means anything one way or another about whether or not there’s anything in it for you, but the answer from my end is that it’s just random archaic internet-ese. An internet friend on a long-dead forum many, many years ago used “b-ware -----” to add a sort of rhetorical punch over and above just “beware -----” in a way that I can’t quite explain, and I picked it up and have deployed it ever since in the same sort of occasional usage. Emphasis with a slight bitter edge but leavened by humor, I guess.

I got this message from 191811110 regarding colloquial Polish and what happens when you refract two of my fandoms through it (which I guess actually makes three of my fandoms if you count the language fandom) and I have successfully obtained permission to share. Check it out:

As you post a lot about deers, I guess that maybe the colloquial uses of deers in Polish language may interest you (I’m taking a guess that you don’t already know?): - In the Polish-dubbed Avengers, there is a scene when Tony Stark tells Loki something that literally means “don’t be a stag” (“nie bądź jeleń.”) This phrase is very colloquial and even as a metaphor - has a double meaning. Either “don’t be a spoil-sport”/”don’t let the fun miss you” kind of thing, or “don’t let other/-s play you by being clue-less”/”don’t be stupid” one. - As to another popular Polish stag-related saying, Harry Potter fans had a field day with it. “To attach prongs to someone” (“przprawić komuś rogi,”) “to have prongs on one’s head” (“mieć rogi na głowie,”) or finally - “rogacz” (“one-with-prongs” and actually the word used by the translator for “Prongs”) are all connected to one concept - and all suggest that Harry Potter wasn’t James Potter’s biological son, after all. “Rogacz” means a man who unknowingly raises another’s child. I hope you enjoyed those anecdotes :).

comments --

1. On the Avengers thing: the idea of Tony or anyone else telling any of the Lokis any of the following

don't be a spoilsport

don't get tricked

don't be a stag (literally or in any metaphorical sense I can come up with)

is HILARIOUS to me. I can't remember the Avengers script well enough to place this, but oh my gods.

2. On the prongs thing: yesss there is a thing like that in English too with horns indicating cuckoldry, although it's pretty archaic at this point, and I feel fairly sure that it's horns specifically rather than antlers. More to the point, who are we speculating might be Harry's real father?