# schiappa



## Lady Marian

Come si traduce schiappa?ho sentito una parola in un film che somiglia a hack ma penso che sia errata. Mi aiutate?


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## alnilam

Ciao,io ho trovato DUFFER per schiappa, ma aspettiamo i nativi...


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## Necsus

Benvenuta, Lady Marian! Questo è quanto suggerisce l'Hazon:
*1* (_fig. fam._) (_persona inesperta_) duffer; dunce; (_fam._) washout, dead loss: _una - in latino_, a duffer (_o fam._ a washout) at Latin; _è una - a tennis_, at tennis he is a washout (_o_ a dead loss _o_ he's hopeless at tennis)


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## beniamone

"Hack" would be fine as a translation in a sporting context


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## Benzene

_*Hello beniamone!*

May I use "jade/moke/nag" in a sporting context even if these nouns mean "an old or worthless horse"?

Bye,

*Benzene*_


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## Paulfromitaly

beniamone said:


> "Hack" would be fine as a translation in a sporting context


Do you mean sports in general or only horse racing?


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## beniamone

Benzene said:


> _*Hello beniamone!*
> 
> May I use "jade/moke/nag" in a sporting context even if these nouns mean "an old or worthless horse"?
> 
> Bye,
> 
> *Benzene*_


Nag yes, but the others I have never heard. Well except jade but that just means giada.


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## rafanadal

Hi there guys.
Sorry if I come back to this thread but I'm particularly  interested in the subject.
I have a friend who's recently moved to Dubai as a tennis instructor and he's posted a video after he had asked a former and non Italian tennis star to make fun of some his friends in Italy by telling them they are "unskilled" as tennis players using the colourful and very informal word we all use to do this.
Clearly this ex pro player plays along and says this word that's totally incomprehensible to him (he just repeated what my friend asked him to say)   addressing a few Italian guys, also unknown to him, as incompetent players, with this slang term very common in this part of Italy to make fun of one another in a playful way.
I understand these words change from area to area and often die out and are replaced by new ones.
Anyway I wonder if "washout" is a noun (as the Italian counterpart we use is a noun) that tennis enthusiasts may use when they tease each other informally or are there other terms commonly in use, the likes of hack, dud...??


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## london calling

Raf, which very informal word did he use? Schiappa? Anyway, I suppose you could call tennis players washouts, but it's not the first word that comes to mind. I'd tend to say they were useless or crap players.


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## sorry66

'Useless' is less offensive than 'crap'. 
Another word you can use is 'rubbish'.
I think the Americans might say 'lousy'.


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## MStraf

sorry66 said:


> ...
> I think the Americans might say 'lousy' .


I am a very bad, lousy tennis player


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## You little ripper!

_Pathetic_ is another we use here. 

"a pathetic tennis player"

"a lousy tennis player"

"a crap tennis player"

"a useless tennis player"


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## Pietruzzo

You little ripper! said:


> _Pathetic_ is another we use here.
> 
> "a pathetic tennis player"
> 
> "a lousy tennis player"
> 
> "a crap tennis player"
> 
> "a useless tennis player"


Those are all adjectives while "schiappa" is a noun.


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## You little ripper!

Pietruzzo said:


> Those are all adjectives while "schiappa" is a noun.


Pietruzzo, I really don't think it matters as long as it conveys the meaning. The Hazon dictionary uses _he's hopeless at tennis _as an example to translate "schiappa" (according to Post 3).


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## Pietruzzo

You little ripper! said:


> Pietruzzo, I really don't think it matters as long as it conveys the meaning. The Hazon dictionary uses _he's hopeless at tennis _as an example to translate "schiappa" (according to Post 3).


I see. But consider this one "io non gioco con le schiappe" We need a noun here. What would you suggest?


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## You little ripper!

Pietruzzo said:


> I see. But consider this one "io non gioco con le schiappe" We need a noun here. What would you suggest?


Translating literally isn't always the best option, in my opinion. Having said that, you could say, _I don't play with losers! _

Loser

_someone or something that is marked by consistently or thoroughly bad quality, performance_


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## Pietruzzo

You little ripper! said:


> you could say, _I don't play with losers! _


Thanks. So, we must face the fact that in English there isn't anyting as colourful and colloquial as "schiappa." Don't we?


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## You little ripper!

Pietruzzo said:


> Thanks. So, we must face the fact that in English there isn't anyting as colourful and colloquial as "schiappa." Don't we?


Pietruzzo, there may be expressions that are just as colourful - I just can't think of any!


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## sorry66

There's 'duffer' (post # 3) - a little old-fashioned.

'Dud' would be better. You can say 'lemons' too. Or 'no-hoper'.


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## rafanadal

Thanks guys! Sorry I'm so late but you know...the Christmas frenzy....
Anyway, Pietruzzo made the point. In fact I was looking for a noun, the ideal counterpart for "schiappa" and not an adjective.
By the way LC, the word we use is not "schiappa", it's a very colourful one, though not vulgar at all, but I'm not going to write it as it's very local. Extremely common as well though, among tennis players.
It means schiappa but it sounds more suitable to make fun. Schiappa is not used because it doesn't sound cool among the "in" players.
Bottom line is: "there must surely be dozens of words used by the "in" tennis crowd working as perfect synonym for schiappa or its similar more modern versions but we should probably ask avid players who may be more in the know about this particular kind of jargon.


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## sorry66

In post # 19 I've added nouns.
It just occurred to me that Americans often say 'You suck!'.


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## rafanadal

Thanks Sorry66.
I think we've got a few of them now: washout, dud, loser, lemons...
Can you figure out a couple of friends teasing each other and saying: "I don't play with a dud like you" or "I don't play with a washout like you"?
In fun I mean.


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## rrose17

My 2 cents. Washout doesn't work in this context. I can't think of an occasion to use it to refer to a tennis player. Definitely not lemon, either. Loser makes the most sense even if it is also Donald Trump's favourite expression... but it's very common. Dud, maybe. Also hack.


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## sorry66

rafanadal said:


> Can you figure out a couple of friends teasing each other and saying: "I don't play with a dud like you" or "I don't play with a washout like you"?
> In fun I mean.


Don't forget 'no-hoper'. Yes, I can imagine that (but I'd use the plural) but I think it's more likely that someone would tease in a different way 'You're useless/all over the place/ today, I don't want to play with you any more'.
For me, using these words for fun is really pushing the limits - you'd have to know the person well to get away with it.


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## tsoapm

beniamone said:


> "Hack" would be fine as a translation in a sporting context





rrose17 said:


> Also hack.


I don’t know about Australia and Canada, but this sounds off to me. Hacks are usually talentless journalists in BE, and the meanings relating to horses (not their riders or other sports so far as I can see in the online OED) are new to me.


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## You little ripper!

tsoapm said:


> I don’t know about Australia and Canada, but this sounds off to me. Hacks are usually talentless journalists in BE, and the meanings relating to horses (not their riders or other sports so far as I can see in the online OED) are new to me.


_A bad journalist_ was also the only 'hack' that I knew of until I read this thread, Mark. You live and learn!


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## tsoapm

Righto. I guess it’s still more narrow than “sports” in any case.


sorry66 said:


> I think the Americans might say 'lousy'.


_I_ say 'lousy', come to that. I rather like it, also in this case.


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## rafanadal

Thanks everybody for their "2 cents" about this interesting thread.
I've got to the conclusions that apart from used and abused definitions such as "loser", some of the others are probably too restricted to a geographical area to be perceived as the first ones that would come to mind to a Canadian or a Londoneer. Different definitions for "schiappa" spring up in so many colourful forms in a relatively small area such as Italy, let alone the English speaking world which probably has a synonym to "schiappa" in Florida that is different from the one they have in Scotland and different from the one they have in Jamaica and so on... 
By the way Sorry66, it goes without saying that we use "that" particular form of jeer among us close  buddies, but what puzzles me the most is the fact that it's not easy to find an BrE or AmE informal English "noun" to aggressively/or in fun define an unskilled performer .
For example I was watching a football match last night on tv and I saw a player kicking a ball way up above the bar in the stands and I thought to myself: "what a... and at least 4/5 different Italian nouns came immediately to mind to address this bad play by this player. The likes of  "schiappa", or "brocco", or "scarpone", or "scarso" or the infamous word I started my thread with and we normally use to make fun of one another among friends. They are all nouns.   it's so common to say in Italy, "che scarso!" "che brocco!" and so on and when I imagine doing that in English I either stick to "What a loser!" or...I'm hard put to it, unless you guys confirm me that it sounds normal to say "What a dud!" "What a hack".
Happy New Year!!!!!!


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## tsoapm

Lame?


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## beacher

I'll also throw out there: "_You are a fool_" (and this whether it's tennis or not) - and probably if you are talking to friends


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## Paulfromitaly

beacher said:


> "_You are a fool_"



This means something altogether different.


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## DEHER

schiappa - Dizionario italiano-inglese WordReference



*schiappa* _nf__colloquiale_ (mezza calzetta, incapace)dud _n_  (_UK_)duffer, washout, fumbler Luca è una schiappa non solo a calcio ma in tutti gli sport di squadra. _Luca is a dud, not just at soccer but at every team sport._


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