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trocken

English translation: with a whack/bluntly/deliberately

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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	kurz und trocken
English translation:	with a whack/bluntly/deliberately
Entered by:	Rachel Ward

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16:19 Mar 28, 2006

German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / sport

German term or phrase: trocken

I can't understand what "trocken" means in this context. It's from a novel. Henry is idly hitting tennis balls with a hockey stick.

"Henry schlug ein paar variierende Bälle, leicht angeschaufelt zunächst, dann kurz und **trocken**, mit einem weit hergehokten Schlag traf er die Kanne so hart, dass sie sich überschlug."

Thanks for any help.

Rachel Ward KudoZ activity Questions: 412 (none open) (8 closed without grading) Answers: 67
Local time: 13:17

with a whack

Explanation:
Normally applied to the way someone expresses himself: ‘kurz und trocken’ = bluntly.
Here it could mean ‘deliberately/precisely/cleanly’ in contrast to his 'idly hitting' them before

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Note added at 17 hrs (2006-03-29 09:56:21 GMT)
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Take a look at the 14,400 direct hits for "kurz und trocken". This adj/adv pair should not be separated but rather be translated as one expression, i.e. this is not a case of 'short' plus 'something else'...

Selected response from:

Andrew Swift
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:17

Grading comment

Thanks Andrew, that's really helpful
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

crisp

Trudy Peters

with a whack

Andrew Swift

clean

xxxIanW

precisely

Henry Schroeder

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

11 mins confidence:

trocken (here) crisp

Explanation:
maybe. Short and crisp

The worst mistake you can make in golf is to try and follow where the ball ... will ensure you hit the ball then the turf - vital to getting a crisp stroke. ...
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/skills/4229078.stm - 45k -

Trudy Peters
Local time: 08:17
Native speaker of:

German,

English
PRO pts in category: 20

29 mins confidence:

trocken (here) clean

Explanation:
Perhaps it means "clean". Really not sure, though.

xxxIanW
Local time: 14:17
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 41

14 hrs confidence:

precisely

Explanation:
trocken laut dem Duden:

5. a) (Sport Jargon, bes. Boxen, Fußball) in der Ausführung hart u. genau, dabei meist ohne große Vorbereitung durchgeführt u. für den Gegner überraschend: ein -er Schuss aus 17 Metern;

The problem is how to render this "kurz and genau" or "kurz and hard". I didn't play hockey in my childhood, so it would probably be best to look through google to see how hockey shots are described. I would personally like to interpret "kurz" here as "quick" and then you could say something along the lines of "quickly and precisely" - at first idly, then quickly and precisely...

Henry Schroeder
United States
Local time: 08:17
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 88

22 mins confidence:

trocken (here)

with a whack

Andrew Swift
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:17
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 101

Grading comment

Thanks Andrew, that's really helpful

Voters for reclassification
as
PRO / non-PRO

Non-PRO (1): Henry Schroeder

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Changes made by editors

Mar 28, 2006 - Changes made by Marcus Malabad:
Term asked	trocken (here) => trocken
Field (write-in)	sport/hockey? => sport

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trocken

English translation: with a whack/bluntly/deliberately

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trocken

English translation: with a whack/bluntly/deliberately

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KudoZ™ translation helpThe KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

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