Kitsch / trash

Włoskipolak 72

Włoskipolak 72

Senior Member
Italy , Lago di Garda
Polish
Art, decorative objects, or design considered by many people to be ugly, without style, or false but enjoyed by other people, often because they are funny..

1926, from German kitsch, literally "gaudy, trash," from dialectal kitschen "to smear." Earlier as a German word in English.

How do you say kitsch ,trash in your language ?

Polish

kitsch = kicz

Synonyms: chała ,tandeta ,lipa , bezguście.


trash = śmieci , chłam, badziewie, dziadostwo.

to talk trash = pleść bzdury

trashy = szmirowaty, tandetny, kiepski, lichy.
 
    • Cymraeg/Welsh

    'kitsch', 'rubbish', trash', 'dregs'

    fflwcs [SW] (n.m.pl.)
    ffrwcs [SWW] (n.m.pl.)
    sothach (n.m.) Also another word for 'spam'
    anialwch [NW] (n.m.) Also means: a desert, like the Sahara
     
    We simply transliterate Kitsch into Chinese as 刻奇（keqi）, but there is also a less common one, 媚俗（meisu）, which is similar to "go to vulgar"
    Trash is a totally different word from the above two: 垃圾（laji）
     
    In Greek kitsch is «κιτς» [cit̠͡s̠] (neut. indeclinable). Colloquially for emphasis we...enlarge it by making it a feminine augmentative, «κιτσαρία» [cit̠͡s̠aˈɾia].
    Trash is «σκουπίδι/σκουπίδια» [s̠kuˈpiði] (neut. nom. sing.)/[s̠kuˈpiðʝa] (neut. nom. pl.) < Byzantine Gr neut. «σκουπίδιν» /skuˈpidin/ (neut. nom. sing.) --> lit. the removed dust/dirt with a broom < ByzGr fem. «σκούπα» /ˈskupa/ < Lat. scōpa, broom. In MoGr «σκουπίδια» (neut. nom. pl.) is the generic name for trash, garbage, rubbish.
    Trash TV is «τηλεσκουπίδια» [t̠ile̞s̠kuˈpiðʝa] (neut. nom. pl.) --> teletrash.
     
    Dutch: kitsch (brocante, but that sounds more positive) vs. rommel (fairly negative, but a rommelmarkt sounds way better because it is like a boot sale).

    Rommel is what is stored in the attic or perhaps in a garage, garden shed, etc. But it would never refer to dust except in the sense that rommel staying in the attic for a long time will be covered with dust... I think it is not as negative as (trash and) garbage or rubbish. It is mainly old, no longer used, but to some people will find treasures in it, never in trash, garbage, rubbish, I think. I think junk might be the best equivalent, but I am not sure as I am not a native speaker...
     
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    Włoskipolak 72 said:
    Art, decorative objects, or design considered by many people to be ugly, without style, or false but enjoyed by other people, often because they are funny.. How do you say kitsch ,trash in your language ?

    Polish

    kitsch = kicz

    Synonyms: chała ,tandeta ,lipa , bezguście.
    Click to expand...
    Google T translates these as crap (2), linden, tasteless - whereby I cannot guess why "linden" turns up. However, the presence of "crap" is strange to me: very agressive word for "solid waste" and for non-sense. Are those really good synonyms for kitsch??? I am of course aware that you cannot really trust Google T translations...
    Włoskipolak 72 said:
    trash = śmieci , chłam, badziewie, dziadostwo.

    to talk trash = pleść bzdury

    trashy = szmirowaty, tandetny, kiepski, lichy.
    Click to expand...
    I am afraid the use of this word (again "non-sense" to some extent, and things no longer wanted) may trigger very different translations and a mix-up. If you could specify "trash" as things no longer wanted, that confusion could be avoided...
     
    Russian:
    kitsch - кич (kich ['kʲiʨ])
    trash - мусор (músor ['musər]), хлам (khlam ['xɫam]), сор (sor ['sɔr])

    Curiously, in Russian slang Eng. trash (трэш, tresh ['tɾɛʂ]) has considerably shifted its meaning, probably under the partial influence of Eng. thrash (whence the musical term трэш-метал ['tɾɛʂ'm(ʲ)ɛtəɫ] "thrash metal"); currently the main meaning of трэш can be described as "something that is ridiculously wrong".
     
    ThomasK said:
    What are the meanings or connotations of the three /trash/ words, if I may ask?
    Click to expand...
    Мусор is the most general word.
    Хлам is arguably closer to 'junk' and will often mean a collection of useless, broken items.
    Сор will usually refer to small rubbish, particularly on a house's floor.
     
    Catalan:

    carrincló = unsophisticated, trite, tacky, gaudy, corny
    xaró = tasteless, graceless, tacky, shoddy
    galdós = (nice, graceful, splendid, but always used ironically, so that it actually means) shabby, lacklustre, lousy
    kitsch (taken from German) = kitsch
    cursi (taken from Spanish) = kitschy, corny, cheesy, chichi
     
    ThomasK said:
    Google T translates these as crap (2), linden, tasteless - whereby I cannot guess why "linden" turns up. However, the presence of "crap" is strange to me: very agressive word for "solid waste" and for non-sense. Are those really good synonyms for kitsch??? I am of course aware that you cannot really trust Google T translations...

    I am afraid the use of this word (again "non-sense" to some extent, and things no longer wanted) may trigger very different translations and a mix-up. If you could specify "trash" as things no longer wanted, that confusion could be avoided...
    Click to expand...

    ''Lipa'' is qiute popular in jargon , coś lipnego tzn. beznadziejnego, badziewie. something shoddy, i.e. rubbish, trash.

    lipne , lipny ecc (adjective)

    In colloquial Russian, the term липа was used - and is still used today in some places - not only as 'lime blossom decoction', but also as 'substitute'. Why? Probably because lime tea, which could be made from one's own harvest, was used as a substitute for the relatively expensive but much-loved tea. Located in the Russian partition, Warsaw took over this lipa from the Russian, later, at the beginning of the 20th c.

    lipne - Tłumaczenie po angielsku - Słownik polsko-angielski Diki
    Lipa - Miejski słownik slangu i mowy potocznej
     
    Penyafort said:
    Catalan:

    carrincló = unsophisticated, trite, tacky, gaudy, corny
    xaró = tasteless, graceless, tacky, shoddy
    galdós = (nice, graceful, splendid, but always used ironically, so that it actually means) shabby, lacklustre, lousy
    kitsch (taken from German) = kitsch
    cursi (taken from Spanish) = kitschy, corny, cheesy, chichi
    Click to expand...
    cursi = Que pretende ser fino, elegante y distinguido pero suele resultar ridículo, de mal gusto o pretencioso.
     
    ThomasK said:
    Dutch: kitsch (brocante, but that sounds more positive) vs. rommel (fairly negative, but a rommelmarkt sounds way better because it is like a boot sale).

    Rommel is what is stored in the attic or perhaps in a garage, garden shed, etc. But it would never refer to dust except in the sense that rommel staying in the attic for a long time will be covered with dust... I think it is not as negative as (trash and) garbage or rubbish. It is mainly old, no longer used, but to some people will find treasures in it, never in trash, garbage, rubbish, I think. I think junk might be the best equivalent, but I am not sure as I am not a native speaker...
    Click to expand...
    Is there a difference between rommelmarkt and vlooienmarkt ?
     
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    I believe they call 'a boot' by the name of 'a trunk', @ThomasK - but I'd rather the USA spoke for itself. (And what it calls 'a car boot sale' = 'sêl cist ceir' in Cym, btw, I don't know).
     
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    I've never heard 'boot sale' or a (car) 'trunk sale' in the US. We do have fleamarkets, rummage sales, garage sales, and yard sales, though. What is sold is not usually kitsch.

    There are two definitions of trash in the US: literally 1) rubbish, stuff you throw out that's similar to garbage and figuratively 2) stuff of inferior quality.
    1) He didn't realize the painting was by Picasso and threw it out with the trash.
    2) I wish he would spend more time writing good literature instead of the trash that he turns out for Nasty Crimes Magazine.
    You might buy figurative trash at a fleamarket, rummage sale, garage sale, or yard sale might sell figurative trash (definition 2), but it's unlikely that you would buy definition-1 trash: old tin cans, broken shards of glass, torn and stained rags, etc.
     
    Great background and in-depth information. I think it is a mystery indeed. Our rommel, stuff we want to get rid of, somehow, perhaps with mixed feelings, that we must/ want to let go of, becomes part of a show that turns it - in the eyes of some beholders - into something unique, ready for a second life. Trash no longer... ;-)
     
    I wouldn't necessarily call stuff that is not useful to me but that might be useful to someone else 'trash.' Right now, for instance, I have a "booster seat" and a "potty chair" that my grandchildren have outgrown. I feel nostalgic when I look at them but there is no point in keeping them and they are useless to me. They're definitely not trash, though.
    Notice that in sentence 1 in #21 the man threw the painting out 'with the trash.' it wasn't trash itself.
     
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    I quite understand your first point, I think. But don't you think that things that people no longer use and with which they have no emotional bond or ..., can become trash to them? Just "old stuff", worth hardly anything in their eyes except financially? - I think we will sometimes call it rommel, which mainly means that they are no longer used or useful and that there is no emotional bond. Could it be that the two words have different connotations (that rommel might sound less judgmental than trash)?

    I am just guessing and mainly trying to understand better. I have been wondering whether that is an overall problem in this thread: are we really speaking about the same things (words, concepts)? I have just looked up two words, junk and trash, wondering whether one of them might come in handy in the context you sketch, but it is not that easy to see the difference very clearly...
     
    You asked "Don't you think that things that people no longer use and with which they have no emotional bond or ..., can become trash to them?"
    Yes, of course things that are useless and without meaning can, and do, become trash to people. People throw out things they have no use for (whether or not they might be useful to someone else) all the time in the same bag or bin that they put truly useless stuff like used disposable diapers, bits and pieces of unrecyclable plastic, shards of broken glass, rusted scraps of metal, etc.
    My comment in #23 was about me: note that I said I wouldn't necessarily call stuff that is not useful to me but that might be useful to someone else 'trash.' I definitely did not intend that to be a generalizing statement.
     
    Roxxxannne said:
    You asked "Don't you think that things that people no longer use and with which they have no emotional bond or ..., can become trash to them?"

    Yes, of course things that are useless and without meaning can, and do, become trash to people. People throw out things they have no use for (whether or not they might be useful to someone else) all the time in the same bag or bin that they put truly useless stuff like used disposable diapers, bits and pieces of unrecyclable plastic, shards of broken glass, rusted scraps of metal, etc.)
    Click to expand...
    I had thought of this: that some "in principle"* valuable stuff can first become "junk", "trash", but then (by other people) be "discovered" and found valuable again? (BTW: Do you use these expressions, "in principle" vs. "in fact" in American English?)
    Roxxxannne said:
    My comment in #23 was about me: note that I said I wouldn't necessarily call stuff that is not useful to me but that might be useful to someone else 'trash.' I definitely did not intend that to be a generalizing statement.
    Click to expand...
    OK, I see. Thanks!
     
    ThomasK said:
    I had thought of this: that some "in principle"* valuable stuff can first become "junk", "trash", but then (by other people) be "discovered" and found valuable again? (BTW: Do you use these expressions, "in principle" vs. "in fact" in American English?)
    Click to expand...
    Yes, we do use 'in principle' and 'in fact,' although maybe not in your sentence: I'd probably say "stuff that was once valuable to someone can become junk or trash to them and yet be found valuable by someone else." I think of that as the principle behind rummage sales, garage sales, etc.
     
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