Yes, Maine Coon is very intelligent cat. But (here you right) almost always trying to hide his life experience. Maybe, afraid, that we’ll begin to teach him more? :-)
[…] http://www.word-detective.com/2009/04/fluke/ Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading… This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged an Ghaeilge, bad linguistics, Daniel Cassidy, fluke, fo-luach, foluach, Gaeilge, How The Irish Invented Slang, Irish, Irish language, rare reward on September 21, 2013 by Debunker. […]
Scott:
October 6th, 2014 at 2:38 pm
Does this passage from Sun Tzu from 500bc contain an accurate translation then? Or did the translator take some liberties?
“Therefore the victories of good warriors are not noted for cleverness or bravery. Therefore their victories in battle are not flukes. Their victories are not flukes because they position themselves where they will surely win, prevailing over those who have already lost.” ~Sun Tzu
Fluke as lucky shot: Maybe the billiard slang was meant to mean something like slim chance. A fluke shot makes it it by a very thin margin. Imagine it in some 19th Century billiard hall with beer and english accents and it begins to sound plausible. But the fact that there is the fluke=guess possibility might make it less so.
Bradley:
February 28th, 2017 at 1:03 pm
I know that seeing a whale is rare and lucky. often it is lucky just to see their tail. A lucky chance would be a fluke.
Since Sun Tzu is very old, it’s possible there’s a different translation for this character in a different ancient dialect, but I couldn’t find anything more definitive.
It would be great to see an actual chinese language historian look at that question.
Ed Emery:
May 23rd, 2020 at 7:31 am
On the River Teign in Devon (historically one of the best flounder rivers in the country) for at least a century the local people (and boys especially) practised what they call “fluking”. This involves walking up the river at low tide, at a time when the water is thick with flounders, and simply spiking them as you walk. They used a variety of spearing instruments. Some had formidable worked iron multi-prong tridents with a short wooden handle, presumably made by a local blacksmith. Others would improvise with an only broom head driven through with nine inch nails. And the most rudimentary was simply a sharpened stick, but equipped with a notch at the sharp end so that the flounder could not escape once speared. The fish are bottom feeders, and like to come upriver in the shallow waters of a rising tide. They were so plentiful that you could almost walk on them. The UK record for the largest recorded flounder catch was set in 1994, caught by Bob Sokell and weighing 5lb 7oz. The Teign no longer has those numbers of flounder. Perhaps this is a result of excesses of fluking in the past. Perhaps it is because raw sewage is no longer (or only rarely) pumped into the river. Or perhaps, as some people suggest, the flounder are being netted offshore by commercial fishermen for use as bait for lobster and crab pots. Although flounders are not prized as food fish, many local people have memories of taking home four or five sizeable flounders for tea after a couple of hours of fluking on the river.
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Nataly:
December 28th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Yes, Maine Coon is very intelligent cat. But (here you right) almost always trying to hide his life experience. Maybe, afraid, that we’ll begin to teach him more? :-)
Marc:
February 9th, 2013 at 10:10 pm
Does fluke have anything to do with
the fact that whalers would stamp their
log books with an image of a whales tail
Or fluke when a whale got away
Fluke | cassidyslangscam:
September 21st, 2013 at 1:26 pm
[…] http://www.word-detective.com/2009/04/fluke/ Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading… This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged an Ghaeilge, bad linguistics, Daniel Cassidy, fluke, fo-luach, foluach, Gaeilge, How The Irish Invented Slang, Irish, Irish language, rare reward on September 21, 2013 by Debunker. […]
Scott:
October 6th, 2014 at 2:38 pm
Does this passage from Sun Tzu from 500bc contain an accurate translation then? Or did the translator take some liberties?
“Therefore the victories of good warriors are not noted for cleverness or bravery. Therefore their victories in battle are not flukes. Their victories are not flukes because they position themselves where they will surely win, prevailing over those who have already lost.” ~Sun Tzu
Anonymous:
May 1st, 2016 at 11:44 pm
so well written, :-)
word!:
May 6th, 2016 at 11:59 am
Fluke as lucky shot: Maybe the billiard slang was meant to mean something like slim chance. A fluke shot makes it it by a very thin margin. Imagine it in some 19th Century billiard hall with beer and english accents and it begins to sound plausible. But the fact that there is the fluke=guess possibility might make it less so.
Bradley:
February 28th, 2017 at 1:03 pm
I know that seeing a whale is rare and lucky. often it is lucky just to see their tail. A lucky chance would be a fluke.
PDubs:
May 4th, 2017 at 7:22 pm
Regarding The Art of War, the closest thing to an interlinear I could find online is this: http://ctext.org/art-of-war/tactical-dispositions
This translation lists the chinese character as ? which is defined as mistake. https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?wdqb=%E5%BF%92
Since Sun Tzu is very old, it’s possible there’s a different translation for this character in a different ancient dialect, but I couldn’t find anything more definitive.
It would be great to see an actual chinese language historian look at that question.
Ed Emery:
May 23rd, 2020 at 7:31 am
On the River Teign in Devon (historically one of the best flounder rivers in the country) for at least a century the local people (and boys especially) practised what they call “fluking”. This involves walking up the river at low tide, at a time when the water is thick with flounders, and simply spiking them as you walk. They used a variety of spearing instruments. Some had formidable worked iron multi-prong tridents with a short wooden handle, presumably made by a local blacksmith. Others would improvise with an only broom head driven through with nine inch nails. And the most rudimentary was simply a sharpened stick, but equipped with a notch at the sharp end so that the flounder could not escape once speared. The fish are bottom feeders, and like to come upriver in the shallow waters of a rising tide. They were so plentiful that you could almost walk on them. The UK record for the largest recorded flounder catch was set in 1994, caught by Bob Sokell and weighing 5lb 7oz. The Teign no longer has those numbers of flounder. Perhaps this is a result of excesses of fluking in the past. Perhaps it is because raw sewage is no longer (or only rarely) pumped into the river. Or perhaps, as some people suggest, the flounder are being netted offshore by commercial fishermen for use as bait for lobster and crab pots. Although flounders are not prized as food fish, many local people have memories of taking home four or five sizeable flounders for tea after a couple of hours of fluking on the river.