gehaltlos

English translation: specious

11:39 Aug 11, 2006

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

German term or phrase: gehaltlos

Verstehen, ohne den anderen zu akzeptieren ist leer und gehaltlos.

Understanding without accepting the fellow man
is airy and inane (poor in content).

D.K. Tannwitz KudoZ activity Questions: 276 (none open) (3 without valid answers) (2 closed without grading) Answers: 686 Germany
Local time: 20:14

English translation:specious

Explanation:
I can't think of a nice equivalent to the idea of gehaltlos, i.e. ohne Gehalt or ohne gedanklicher Inhalt; geistiger, ideeller Wert.

But "specious" captures a nice duality of appearing genuine while in fact being false, deceptive, similar to the understanding in your case.

Selected response from:

Henry Schroeder
United States
Local time: 14:14

Grading comment

Thanks so much!
Specious is great.
...... similar to the understanding in my case (by the way: the German text is "specious" as well)
I dislike "airy" and "empty" as well (still thinking ....)
THANKS TO ALL !!!!!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +1

shallow

franglish

3 +2

specious

Henry Schroeder

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

34 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

shallow

Explanation:
... is senseless and shallow

franglish
Switzerland
Local time: 20:14
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in category: 28

56 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

specious

Henry Schroeder
United States
Local time: 14:14
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 88
1 corroborated select project
in this pair and field

Grading comment

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Diana Loos: - but I wouldn't agree at all with "airy" as a translation for "leer"! "Airy" is far too poetically positive. The word is "empty"!

1 hr

-> I'm with you all the way. I hope my answer didn't suggest that I was agreeing with "airy" in any way. I imagine WIDIC just included it temporarily.

agree

Armorel Young: and as well as avoiding "airy", I'd also want to avoid "the fellow man" - it doesn't sound English at all. "The other person" would be better, and gender-free into the bargain.

2 hrs

-> For whatever reason I partially dreamed about vierstockig last nicht, actually seeing the "Stock", imaginging them to be one on top of the ground floor, one above the first floor, etc. I guess answering a non-pro question incorrectly really got to me.

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