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Danseurs Immondains

English translation: ideas...

11:40 Feb 15, 2005
French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / description of art & techniques
French term or phrase: Danseurs Immondains
A title of a picture - the word I have trouble with is 'Immondains' - I can handle 'Danseurs' .
Any clues?
TIA
Connor
Local time: 20:26
English translation:ideas...
Explanation:
a "mondain" always makes me think of the old expression "lounge lizard" - people who hang around in places frequented by the fashionable people and socialites. Something with gelled hair and a bit slimy! So a "danseur mondain" would be a dancer from fashionable/jetset/society circles.
It follows then that a "danseur immondain" will be a dancer from a much lower social stratum.
Perhaps it is even the distinction between " a worldly dancer" and an "unworldly dancer" but we'd need to see the work of art to judge!

In the meantime, I suggest "dancers of a lesser order"

Selected response from:

CMJ_Trans (X)
Local time: 20:26
Grading comment
thanks for the exchange! I went with Private Dancers
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
1 +3See explanation below...
Tony M
3 +1ideas...
CMJ_Trans (X)
2base-society dancers
Beth Varley
2--
xuebai


Discussion entries: 5





  

Answers


9 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 1/5Answerer confidence 1/5 peer agreement (net): +3
See explanation below...


Explanation:
Well, Petit Larousse gives the adjective immonde' as meaning filthy/ disgustingly dirty or base/vile/ignoble, and my interpretation of the -ain ending would be the analogy with urban/urbane etc. in English, so I would suggest trying something along those lines.

But I might be missing the point completely here!

Vile dancers
Ignoble dancers
"Dirty Dancing" ;-))
... ???

Tony M
France
Local time: 20:26
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 88

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Parrot: "vile" seems to cover both senses, but I liked the "dirty" bit. Hi Tony!
15 mins
  -> Thanks! Cheers, Cecilia :-)
agree  JCEC: (ig)noble dancers to preserve the pun?
35 mins
  -> Nice one!
agree  Lucie LAVERGNE: I prefer the first 2 suggestions, as they keep the rather old-fashion sound of the French play on words. I didn't understand your urban analogy, though...
39 mins
  -> Thanks, Lucie! It's not so much an analogy, really --- just the way the word urbane is derived from urban, cf. german/germane, etc.
neutral  CMJ_Trans (X): this is a play on the words "danseurs mondains" to mean the reverse. I doubt if "immonde" is what the author was thinking of
49 mins
  -> Thanks, CMJ! I did wonder about that, and bow to your superiro knowledge
neutral  writeaway: agree with CMJ-also think it's mondain/immondain, not immonde
1 hr
  -> Thanks, W/A --- ditto comment to CMJ
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24 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
base-society dancers


Explanation:
Immondain is a play on words, a combination of immonde and mondain. I have tried to do the same thing by mixing high-society for mondain and base for immonde, but it does not seem to work quite as cleverly as your original...

Beth Varley
Local time: 20:26
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Lucie LAVERGNE: I agree with your explanation of the title. True that the "base-society" doesn't quite work
22 mins
  -> I wanted it to be like "low society" as opposed to "high society" while at the same trying to keep the pun between mondain and immonde...
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
ideas...


Explanation:
a "mondain" always makes me think of the old expression "lounge lizard" - people who hang around in places frequented by the fashionable people and socialites. Something with gelled hair and a bit slimy! So a "danseur mondain" would be a dancer from fashionable/jetset/society circles.
It follows then that a "danseur immondain" will be a dancer from a much lower social stratum.
Perhaps it is even the distinction between " a worldly dancer" and an "unworldly dancer" but we'd need to see the work of art to judge!

In the meantime, I suggest "dancers of a lesser order"



CMJ_Trans (X)
Local time: 20:26
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 58
Grading comment
thanks for the exchange! I went with Private Dancers

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  writeaway: feel this is in the right direction. like 'dancers of a lesser order' because it covers both dancers and milieu
27 mins
  -> but it's still not right - lacking in inspiration today
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
--


Explanation:
SLUMS DANCERS

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr 9 mins (2005-02-15 12:50:17 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Difficult to say without seeing the picture.

xuebai
Local time: 21:26
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
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