# mignotta



## mimi_me

Salve a tutti,

so che la mia richiesta potrà sembrarvi un po' atipica ma avrei bisogno dei vostri consigli su come tradurre in inglese il termine "mignotta", mantenendo lo stesso registro, ovvero di livello molto basso, poiché l'equivalente di "prostituta" risulterebbe troppo poco volgare.
Dunque, la mia domanda è: quale traduzione dovrei preferire tra "slut", "hooker" e "whore"?

Grazie a tutti in anticipo e... Perdonate la volgarità!


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## giginho

Probabilmente io preferirei "slut" anche se preferire è una parola grossa.

Inoltre noi abbiamo 10.000.000 modi per indicare una donna di facili costumi, a seconda delle varie sfaccettature del suo comportamento e del tipo di rapporto che intercorre tra l'insultante e l'insultata.

La prossima volta usa il segno di warn per le parole volgari, grazie


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## Tegs

Whore is probably the worst of the three words you listed. I'm not sure how bad a word mignotta is, so I'd go with Gigi's recommendation on this one.


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## mimi_me

Ok. Grazie per il consiglio terminologico e anche per il consiglio sull'uso del segno di warn. Non sapevo si potessero segnalare contenuti volgari! ^_^


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## giginho

Tegs, my dear, this word is one of the worst that can be used. It's a bit "less" that the others warnut.... for example...I'm a bit embarrassed using this word with Her Majesty the moderator, I'm sorry!) but it's enough powerfull to translate the english word posted before!


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## Tegs

giginho said:


> TI'm a bit embarrassed using this word with Her Majesty the moderator, I'm sorry!


 I'm Irish, we don't go in for the monarchy - you should know that  So, mignotta is on the same level as whore then? Ok, I'll take your word for it


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## giginho

I beg your pardon for the monarchy  


Well, better to carry on in PM......I'm going to list a bit and I do not want to be whipped in public by the new Moderator! (only in private!!! ahahahah  )


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## longplay

Hello ! "mignotta" is a dialectal term of "romanesco" origin (from the old French "mignotte", "mignonne" = an "easy young girl": does it help to find an English equivalent ?


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## Tegs

Longplay, that does help  The most common rude slang word for an easy girl is definitely 'slut'. Whore and hooker are terms which are more related to the profession of prostitution than just someone of easy morals.


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## longplay

That seems correct to me  : "whore" would be "mignottona" in romanesco. But the real use of the term would depend on the context . MIMI , give us some help, please !


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## mimi_me

Thank you all for your help!

Well, in italian, "prostituta" is a more "elegant" term. When we say "mignotta", indeed, we are using a very dirty word that has a charge of vulgarity inside! 
Considering your replies, I suppose that the dirtiest word for it is "slut" but I don't think "whore" could be the equivalent of "mignottona". I'd say it could replace the italian word "puttana" that is dirty enough and used as a general term!


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## longplay

Come detto da Giginho, ci sono molti modi di usare  "mignotta" : da "ttina", "ttella" a ... "grandissima 'ttona". We lack the context ! Bye.


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## Alessandrino

I'd say _slag. _I find it slightly more appropriate than _slut_.


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## london calling

Alessandrino said:


> I'd say _slag. _I find it slightly more appropriate than _slut_.


Me too.


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## You little ripper!

london calling said:


> Me too.


Only because you're a Brit, Jo! Australians do use it occasionally, but 'slut' is definitely more common. I don't think Americans use 'slag' in that sense.


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## london calling

You little ripper! said:


> Only because you're a Brit, Jo! Australians do use it occasionally, but 'slut' is definitely more common. I don't think Americans use it.


I bet my bottom dollar they don't!

Mimi can choose the best word on the basis of her "audience", can't she.


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## Paulfromitaly

How come has no one suggested _slapper _yet?


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## danalto

longplay said:


> Hello ! "mignotta" is a dialectal term of "romanesco" origin (from the old French "mignotte", "mignonne" = an "easy young girl": does it help to find an English equivalent ?


Are sure of it? I knew it came from latin *MATER IGNOTA *(unknown mother) 

_(I found an old Thread in the Solo Italiano Forum: CLICK! )_


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## SighingatSilvio

Whoa whoa whoa.  

Look I'm certainly no monarchist either, but for the sake of accuracy and so as not to give misleading information here, I can't go along with the suggestion that the words 'slut' and 'whore' are intrinsically offensive in the English language.

If they were good enough for Shakespeare, and have been since, which they certainly were/are, you can't be serious.


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## Tegs

They are offensive though!  I can tell you, if you call a girl a whore to her face, you would soon see I'm right! Although you might get a big bruise for your pains... Paul, Al & LC - slag and slapper of course also work


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## SighingatSilvio

Yes they are.  But that is due to their meaning, not the words themselves.  Same if you called a girl a prostitute.

Look up your own dictionary, on-site.  You have the Oxford as I recall.  Neither one will present as slang or rude or even colloquial.

Now look up the word 'f*ck'.  

See the difference?


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## london calling

Paulfromitaly said:


> How come has no one suggested _slapper _yet?


Shouldn't say this but I've always found "slapper" absolutely bloody hilarious!

And I think I've said this before: Shakespeare's "strumpet" is even better..


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## Alessandrino

You little ripper! said:


> Only because you're a Brit, Jo! Australians do use it occasionally, but 'slut' is definitely more common. I don't think Americans use 'slag' in that sense.


A question to our American friends: I take it that _slag_ is chiefly BrE, but would the "average" American speaker be aware of its meaning at all?


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## Tegs

SighingatSilvio said:


> Look up your own dictionary, on-site.  You have the Oxford as I recall.  Neither one will present as slang or rude or even colloquial.



Urm, I'm not sure what your point is in terms of how offensive hooker, slag and whore are, but both hooker and slag are classed as slang words in the online OED (www.oed.com 2012) and while whore isn't slang, all three words are offensive if used to describe a promiscuous woman who is not by profession a prostitute (which was the point I was trying to make )


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## SighingatSilvio

The point is, neither 'whore' nor 'slut' require those silly exclamation points, on the basis of any reasonable criteria.

My mother's family is Irish, so I'm used to this sort of...'discussion'.


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## Tegs

SighingatSilvio said:


> The point is, neither 'whore' nor 'slut' require those silly exclamation points, on the basis of any reasonable criteria.
> 
> My mother's family is Irish, so I'm used to this sort of...'discussion'.



There is a very good reason for using that symbol for those words:



> Language learners need to know if a word can be used in every context, or if it is offensive, or might be inappropriate in some situations and needs to be used carefully. That's why we ask you to put this icon:  near each occurrence of such words.



Have a look in the forum guidelines: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1159703

Being Irish has nothing to do with it... 

PS. LC - strumpet is brilliant I agree, and less offensive to my mind than the other words mentioned so far in the thread.


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## SighingatSilvio

No that's not a good reason.

Those words are not considered 'offensive' per se, CLEARLY, which is why you have those marks.  Otherwise you lead non-natives up the garden path.

Now if you look at another recent thread, you'll see I'm happy to admit when I'm mistaken.  Are you?  Because I'm not going to continue this.


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## Tegs

I'm happy to admit a mistake when I make one, as I'm sure you would be aware if we'd shared many threads in the past - I don't think we have so far  In this case though, I'm just following the forum guidelines. I'm sure you can appreciate, as a native speaker of English, that words such as whore, hooker, slut etc are inappropriate in some situations and need to be used carefully. "Mrs Jones, you look like a total slut in that dress" would, for example, be an inappropriate thing to say to anyone.


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## giginho

SighingatSilvio said:


> No that's not a good reason.
> 
> Those words are not considered 'offensive' per se, CLEARLY, which is why you have those marks.  Otherwise you lead non-natives up the garden path.
> 
> Now if you look at another recent thread, you'll see I'm happy to admit when I'm mistaken.  Are you?  Because I'm not going to continue this.



So, Silvio, as a non native speaker, on the basis of what you have written in your post, I can go around and say to my collegue (both women and man for the "par condicio") "Hey whore, how's life?" or "hey slut! Nice dress!!".....very usefull feature of the English language! I can call "puttana" whoever I meet here around......that's great! 



Tegs said:


> I'm happy to admit a mistake when I make one, as I'm sure you would be aware if we'd shared many threads in the past - I don't think we have so far  In this case though, I'm just following the forum guidelines. I'm sure you can appreciate, as a native speaker of English, that words such as whore, hooker, slut etc are inappropriate in some situations and need to be used carefully. *"Mrs Jones, you look like a total slut in that dress" would, for example, be an inappropriate thing to say to anyone*.



Thanks to Tegs I'm not 6 feet under.....at least not jet!


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## london calling

giginho said:


> So, Silvio, as a non native speaker, on the basis of what you have written in your post, I can go around and say to my collegue (both women and man for the "par condicio") "Hey whore, how's life?" or "hey slut! Nice dress!!".....very usefull feature of the English language! I can call "puttana" whoever I meet here around......that's great!


A man who likes to live dangerously would do that!

Glad Tegs has got the message across.. I agree with her, of course, you have to be careful what you say to people (in any language): understanding "register" is vital..


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## longplay

danalto said:


> Are sure of it? I knew it came from latin *MATER IGNOTA *(unknown mother)
> 
> _(I found an old Thread in the Solo Italiano Forum: CLICK! )_



Ciao. Il Devoto-Oli mi sembra dia la stessa origine . Indipendentemente, io l'ho sempre saputa così, come per il napoletano "sciantosa" (francese "cantante") e l'altro
romanesco "prescia" (da "pressez )- vous"). Credo che la confusione derivi da "figlio di mignotta" che abbraccerebbe i due concetti... si fa per dire!
PS Le truppe francesi, specie da Bonaparte in poi, sono state spesso intorno a Roma ("zuavi" compresi).


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