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cannot make the least sacrifice of ... humor

English translation: refuse to change their mood

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:cannot make the least sacrifice of ... humor
Selected answer:refuse to change their mood
Entered by: Ana Juliá

08:51 Aug 2, 2004
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Religion / Commentary on Proverbs
English term or phrase: cannot make the least sacrifice of ... humor
It is an evidence no less clear of love of contention when persons seize every opportunity for beginning a quarrel, and cannot make the least sacrifice of self-will, or interest, or humor, for the sake of peace.

I understand what is meant by "make the least sacrifice of self-will and of interest", but what is meant here by "make the least sacrifice of humor"?
Ana Juliá
Spain
Local time: 05:46
refuse to change their mood
Explanation:
Your text is clearly quite an old one, so humour is being used in the sense of "mood", rather than in the more modern sense of being light-hearted or witty. I think it is saying that if people are being bad tempered, angry or whatever, they obstinately persist in staying this way (staying in this humour or mood) rather than making an effort to change (as others have said) for the sake of peace.
Selected response from:

Armorel Young
Local time: 04:46
Grading comment
thanks!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +7refuse to change their mood
Armorel Young
3 +3cannot allow their own temperament or state of mind to yield to or be influenced by someone else's
Kevin Pfeiffer (X)
3 +2make an effort
Gerrit Jan Groothedde
4 +1Cannot make the least sacrifice of ...mood or temperament
Ramesh Madhavan
5renunciar mínimamente (hacer el más mínimo sacrificio) ... o satisfacción personal
jomasaov (X)


  

Answers


6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
make an effort


Explanation:
The sacrifice, imnsho, is in doing something contrary to their own nature. They are quarrelsome and just will give in to it. HTH

Gerrit Jan Groothedde
Local time: 05:46
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in DutchDutch

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Kevin Pfeiffer (X): "will not make the effort to do something contrary to their own nature" // Sorry, changing my mind - I think that "contrary to one's own nature" is perhaps more than a "least sacrifice".
18 mins
agree  DGK T-I: to Kevin: yes, but here "least sacrifice of humour",etc doesn't mean that the sacrifice is small(the least/easiest kind of sacrifice) but that the person is making the sacrifice (or not) at least to a small extent
12 hrs
agree  Jörgen Slet
14 hrs
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21 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
cannot allow their own temperament or state of mind to yield to or be influenced by someone else's


Explanation:
"I'm not in the mood and don't plan to change any time soon."

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 22 mins (2004-08-02 09:13:39 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

(of course I ignored the \"least sacrifice\" part here as that didn\'t seem to be in question)

Kevin Pfeiffer (X)
Germany
Local time: 05:46
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  nothing
2 hrs
agree  DGK T-I
12 hrs
agree  Jörgen Slet
13 hrs
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35 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +7
refuse to change their mood


Explanation:
Your text is clearly quite an old one, so humour is being used in the sense of "mood", rather than in the more modern sense of being light-hearted or witty. I think it is saying that if people are being bad tempered, angry or whatever, they obstinately persist in staying this way (staying in this humour or mood) rather than making an effort to change (as others have said) for the sake of peace.

Armorel Young
Local time: 04:46
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 51
Grading comment
thanks!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Mikhail Kropotov: right on
18 mins
agree  Krisztina Lelik
46 mins
neutral  Kevin Pfeiffer (X): But IMO you can't "change your mood" (despite what 17,500 Google hits say). :-) You can _do something_ to change/improve your mood. Of course, as I forget, she's only asking for an expl. and not an EN-->EN "translation".
49 mins
agree  Alexander Onishko
53 mins
agree  Eva Karpouzi
2 hrs
agree  Lisa Russell
2 hrs
agree  DGK T-I: or at least doing something cheerfully, when their mood/humour would lead them to do things differently, etc
12 hrs
agree  Jörgen Slet
13 hrs
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41 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Cannot make the least sacrifice of ...mood or temperament


Explanation:
The word 'humour' may not mean amusement here. The other meanings of humour [Humor] are mood, a sudden, unpredictable, or unreasoning inclination etc. Hope this helps :-)


    Reference: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=hum...
    Reference: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=38448&dict=CA...
Ramesh Madhavan
Local time: 09:16
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in TamilTamil

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Jörgen Slet
13 hrs
  -> Thanks Jorgen
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
renunciar mínimamente (hacer el más mínimo sacrificio) ... o satisfacción personal


Explanation:
.

jomasaov (X)
Local time: 05:46
Native speaker of: Native in SpanishSpanish
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