# colpo della strega



## swami

qual è la traduzione per "colpo della strega"?


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## valy822

Ciao swami. Welcome!
It's _back strain._


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## swami

thanks, Valy. very kind of you.
sono una specie di personal trainer. in questo caso, mi servono resources per un intervento molto personal
ma potrei anche aver scritto un mare di c...ate. il mio inglese basico me lo consente.
questo è un posto fantastico.
baci


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## valy822

Di niente Swami!
Siamo tutti qui per imparare!


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## Murphy

Hi all,
Does anyone know if we have anything more idiomatic in English to translate this expression?

The context is a list of medical conditions including:
Acute lumbalgia ("colpo della strega")

I'm thinking along the lines of "whip lash", although this obviously relates to the neck and not the lower back. Do we have any other name for "colpo della strega" apart from straightforward "back strain"??

Thanks

If necessary, here's a definition: http://www.my-personaltrainer.it/colpo-strega.html


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## kellytree

Most of the time you hear people say "I put my back out".


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## london calling

kellytree said:


> Most of the time you hear people say "I put my back out".


You took the words straight from my mouth!

And for once we use the same expression on both sides of the pond!


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## Murphy

Thanks to you both.  I can't really write that on the list though.  I guess I'll just have to stick with boring old "back strain"


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## kellytree

Acute lumbalgia ("putting your back out") may work.


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## london calling

kellytree said:


> Acute lumbalgia ("putting your back out") may work.


Ye, I suffer from that....!
We also call it lumbago, don't we Murphy? Or lower back pain?


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## alfajor

kellytree said:


> Most of the time you hear people say "I put my back out".



Also:
_Throw_ your back out.


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## london calling

alfajor said:


> Also:
> _Throw_ your back out.


Not in BE. Maybe in AE.


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## johngiovanni

In BE also "I've cricked my back".
"Crick": a painful, usually sudden stiffness, pain in the neck or back.  (Can be used as a verb).

Also "I've got a jippy back".


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## Odysseus54

london calling said:


> Not in BE. Maybe in AE.



Yes, in the US you throw your back out.  It's a misalignment, or a strain. 

However, il colpo della strega is something else - it is about a sudden painful contraction in the lower back area due to a cold draft.  

Cold drafts in Italy, as you know, are one of the main causes of death and permanent disability.  Do we even have that as a concept in the US ?  Or in the Commonwealth ?

If you had to describe it, I think you would call it a lower back spasm.  Do we have something more idiomatic?


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## johngiovanni

Odysseus54 said:


> However, il colpo della strega is something else - it is about a sudden painful contraction in the lower back area due to a cold draft.



"Cold drafts in Italy, as you know, are one of the main causes of death and permanent disability."   Are you being serious or ironic here?  We have "cold drafts" in the UK, as you know.

Is this a serious medical condition or a superstition or something else?  (Forgive me, I am not being "clever", but just genuinely interested).


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## Dearson

Odysseus54 said:


> Cold drafts in Italy, as you know, are one of the main causes of death and permanent disability. Do we even have that as a concept in the US ? Or in the Commonwealth ?



Mi hai regalato una risata. _Cold drafts_ are one of the cornerstones of the Italian culture. A cultural heritage. Odysseus will explain what I mean, as every time I speak with foreigners about _colpi d’aria_ they are like:


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## johngiovanni

Perhaps it's not so strange, and not so exclusively Italian.  As a child I was forever warned that I would "catch my death of cold" if I went out _dressed like that_.  Of course, I still went out _dressed like that_, and - so far - I have not caught my death of cold.


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## Dearson

Exactly John. Italian grandmas, but also moms, and even some girlfriends (unbelievable), are constantly worried about cold drafts. They believe that almost every illness may be caused by _colpi d’aria_. A temperature? It must have been a cold draft! A cold? Cold draft! A headache? Cold draft! A stomachache? Cold draft!
I won’t be upset if someone told me cold drafts may cause depression.
The warning is always the same: Wrap up warm, it’s cold outside!


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## london calling

Cold drafts in Italy, as you know, are one of the main causes of death and permanent disability.  Do we even have that as a concept in the US ?  Or in the Commonwealth ?
[/QUOTE]
Read this. It's hilarious (and so true: I've lived here for 36 years and yet 'mustn't grumble' is what I was brought up on).

In ogni caso conferma che una buona traduzione dell'italianissima 'colpo di freddo' non esiste. Questo non vuol dire che non esistono 'cold draughts' che minano la salute di noi inglesi, che sia ben chiaro. E come per JG "Don't go out with your hair wet (or whatever) , you'll catch your death" è una cosa che mi sono sentita dire mille volte.

Tornando al 'colpo della strega': back strain, come dici tu, è forse la traduzione migliore.


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## metazoan

Yes, I remember the fur coats coming out in October in Rome. In the US we no longer worry about cold chills, but can still take pride in having invented many health manias, mainly about nutrition. (A few years ago we would die from eating eggs, now they're OK again.) 
For the _colpo della strega_ translation, _back strain_ seems to focus more on some particular cause, while _back pain _doesn't imply any particular reason. Maybe we should revive _lumbago_.


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## Dearson

metazoan said:


> but can still take pride in having invented many health manias, mainly about nutrition. (A few years ago we would die from eating eggs, now they're OK again.)



Not so sure about it. I know lots of people who believe that _more than three eggs a week will kill you, you know, too much cholesterol. _Some others think that an egg a day keeps the doctor away. I guess that in the end _tutto il mondo è paese_.


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## You little ripper!

london calling said:


> We also call it lumbago, don't we Murphy?





metazoan said:


> Maybe we should revive _lumbago_.


That's what I kept thinking as I was reading the thread. A physiotherapist acquaintance of mine used the word a lot in relation to his patients in the sixties and seventies. I haven't heard it in years.


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## Einstein

Another vote for _lumbago_! 

As for catching our death of cold, I think we need a compromise between the British total neglect and the Italian over-protectiveness.


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## Odysseus54

johngiovanni said:


> "Cold drafts in Italy, as you know, are one of the main causes of death and permanent disability."   Are you being serious or ironic here?  We have "cold drafts" in the UK, as you know.
> 
> Is this a serious medical condition or a superstition or something else?  (Forgive me, I am not being "clever", but just genuinely interested).



A bit of both, probably. Seriously, now, I think it belongs to that wealth of pre-scientific observations turned into popular belief that contain some element of truth without being the whole truth.  My RN wife tried for 28 years (in Miami) to convince me that cold does not cause illness, bacteria do.  Now we have come to a common ground - cold stresses your body and your immune system, making it more likely for bacteria and viruses to multiply and do their dirty work.  And we both bundle up.

Language, which is a conservative collection of metaphors, keeps the old stuff with the new.  And keeps things interesting - think of the difference between saying 'lumbago' (a boring technical term) and saying instead 'colpo della strega'.  The idea of a witch that strikes you with a spell to make you walk funny is much more powerful, I think  

Your 'crick' looks better and better, by the way.  Never heard it, but it's on the MW, and it's generic , folkish, onomatopoeic enough to capture both meaning and register, I think. 

What do you do with one, do you 'get it'?  Or in that case you 'crick' whatever it is that is cricked?


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## johngiovanni

Thanks Odyssseus.  Yes, you "crick your back / neck" or "get a crick in your back / neck".  Often the cause cited is some everyday action - sitting next to an open window on a bus, picking up a suitcase, looking up at the stars, etc.  You can also crick your knee pulling up dahlias.


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## You little ripper!

Here's a definition of lumbago:

_Lumbago is an older, non-medical term used to describe lower back pain or back pain in general._


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## Einstein

Nice post, Odysseus. Just one thing: "lumbago" is part of popular parlance and I don't think people consider it as a boring technical term; in fact "back strain" soulds more boring to me. Still, lumbago is not as folksy as the witch's spell!

"Crick" I have only heard in the context of "a crick in the neck", not in the back.

PS, as YLR says, _Lumbago is an older, non-medical term._


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## Odysseus54

johngiovanni said:


> Thanks Odyssseus.  Yes, you "crick your back / neck" or "get a crick in your back / neck".  Often the cause cited is some everyday action - sitting next to an open window on a bus, picking up a suitcase, looking up at the stars, etc.  You can also crick your knee pulling up dahlias.



Thanks - one more good word learnt.  



Einstein said:


> Nice post, Odysseus. Just one thing: "lumbago" is part of popular parlance and I don't think people consider it as a boring technical term; in fact "back strain" soulds more boring to me. Still, lumbago is not as folksy as the witch's spell!
> 
> "Crick" I have only heard in the context of "a crick in the neck", not in the back.



That'd be a 'torcicollo'.  And thanks for the other remarks.


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## giginho

johngiovanni said:


> you "*crick your back* / neck" or "get a crick in your back / neck". Often the cause cited is some everyday action - sitting next to an open window on a bus, picking up a suitcase, looking up at the stars, etc. You can also crick your knee pulling up dahlias.



That's funny!

We used to say (at least in Turin) "sono incriccato" "c'ho la schiena / collo incriccata/o", "mi sono incriccato la schiena".


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## london calling

giginho said:


> That's funny!
> 
> We used to say (at least in Turin) "sono incriccato" "c'ho la schiena / collo incriccata/o", "mi sono incriccato la schiena".


They still say that here.


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