# Poke someone's knee



## Louel

Hello everybody,

a young lady says that to the guy sitting next to her on the plane. He awakened her to catch the flight attendant, in case she wanted a drink, and she goes: "You scared me half to death. You can't go around poking a woman's knee. You 're going to end up in jail one of these days."
Παρενοχλώ?(seems too strong). Τσιγκλάω, ψαχουλεύω, πιλατεύω or what? I 'm improvising as I couldn't find the exact expression anywhere.
May be there isn't such expression at all and he literally poked her on the knee to wake her up?
Thank you!


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## Akritas

I believe the lady was more annoyed at the physical aspect of poking rather than the poking itself. In other words she finds it inappropriate to 'touch' a woman's knee, therefore the translation should rotate around this line of thinking.
'Ακουμπάς' or 'Αγγίζεις' would be my choice.


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## Louel

Thanks for your suggestion.
Still, could you or anybody tell me whether there exists such an expression or whether she was speaking literally?


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## Akritas

The man probably used his fingers to wake her up. Poking is defined as follows (wikipedia): 'An action of tapping and/or softly jabbing another person using a finger, stick, or similar object to gain their attention'. I don't think there is a verb in Greek to describe the exact connotations. I still believe that the lady was 'annoyed' at the contact and she used the verb poke to simply describe the action.


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## Louel

Ευχαριστώ τα μάλλα, που μπήκες στον κόπο.


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## winegrower

To poke, as already suggested, means σπρώχνω, σκουντάω, τσιγκλάω. I don't suppose you mean "to pull someone's leg", which is another story: κοροϊδεύω, δουλεύω.


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## Akritas

I will have to disagree with winegrower. Poking is a specific action (at least in the UK) and is defined as follows (wikipedia): 'An action of tapping and/or softly jabbing another person using a finger, stick, or similar object to gain their attention' therefore it is not σπρώχνω, σκουντάω ή τσιγκλάω.


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## winegrower

Akritas said:


> I will have to disagree with winegrower. Poking is a specific action (at least in the UK) and is defined as follows (wikipedia): 'An action of tapping and/or softly jabbing another person using a finger, stick, or similar object to gain their attention' therefore it is not σπρώχνω, σκουντάω ή τσιγκλάω.


 
I'm mostly self-educated in english , so I can't argue about that, except presenting some sources, here and here.


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## Akritas

winegrower said:


> I'm mostly self-educated in english , so I can't argue about that, except presenting some sources, here and here.


 

I am sorry if I am being pedantic; it's the nature of my job to notice, research and (over?)analyse the finer details in translating. I had a careful look at the definitions found in both links you included. Both of them stress the importance of an object being used, which could be a stick, a finger or generally a long and sometimes sharp object. My point is that none of the three Greek verbs offer this fine point when used *on their own*. I believe that in order to preserve the equivalence of the expression, one would have to mention *the object used *as well.


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## Louel

two more things:
1.She doesn't say "touching", she says "poking". So I feel I can't use ακουμπώντας but something a bit stronger.
2.Given that her reaction is spontaneous and the dialogue colloquial, I started thinking of verbs like να πιάνεις/να πειράζεις/να βάζεις χέρι σε γυναικεία γόνατα. Bear in mind that she goes on talking about him ending up in jail.
What do you think?


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## cougr

How about : '....na mpigeis me to daktulo sou...'


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## Akritas

Obviously I cannot read the lady's mind (or the author's if it was in a book), however the way I understand it and the way I would interpret the scene is that the lady is annoyed about the contact itself and *not* about the way it took place. It just happened that the man poked her. If the man had used his palm to gently push her knees in order to wake her up, she would have probably said: 'You can't go around pushing people


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## Louel

Σας ευχαριστώ όλους.


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