Szanować

[Thomas1]

Split from here

Again some off-topic discussion

So, šanovat doesn't mean respect in Czech? If I read this word I'd say it means respect someone but there are many 'strange' words that sound similar in Slavic languages and don't mean the same.
Well, if you respect someone you can be considerate for them as well, and all the way around, so maybe there's some similarity (and I shouldn't have corrected you ). Could you please give some examples in which you would use the word?

 

[Jana337]

Again some off-topic discussion

So, šanovat doesn't mean respect in Czech? If I read this word I'd say it means respect someone but there are many 'strange' words that sound similar in Slavic languages and don't mean the same.
Well, if you respect someone you can be considerate for them as well, and all the way around, so maybe there's some similarity (and I shouldn't have corrected you ). Could you please give some examples in which you would use the word?

Šanovat does not mean anything in Czech. I only know it from my grandmother's dialect inspired by Polish. She used it like "to spare someone" (to prevent someone from experiencing something embarassing, unpleasant, hurtful).

Jana

 

[Tchesko]

Šanovat does not mean anything in Czech. I only know it from my grandmother's dialect inspired by Polish. She used it like "to spare someone" (to prevent someone from experiencing something embarassing, unpleasant, hurtful).

Jana

The word might be more widespread than that, Jana. I know it from a folk song from South Moravia...

Roman

 

[Jana337]

Thanks, Roman.
Would you say it means "to protect" or "to respect" in the song? I lean towards the former.

Jana

 

[Tchesko]

To say the truth, I couldn't make up my mind...

However, this "Moravian-Czech dictionary" makes me lean towards "to spare", "to protect", "to look after"... and seemingly also "to pity" ("litovat, šetřit, opatrovat")...

But the sense of "šanovat" is definitely subject to (mis)interpretation: there are discussions on that matter on the internet; it is a substandard word, so its meaning might be not-so-well codified.

Now, I found here some etymological stuff: "šanovat" stems from the German verb "schonen", and its meaning is "to spare someone", "to protect someone" and... "to respect someone" ("mít ohled na", for lack of better translation ~ "to have regard for someone", "to take one's motives into consideration").

So, generally speaking, I tend to think that both "to protect" and "to respect" are acceptable.
In the song, I first thought I would replace it with "opatrovat", i.e. "to protect" / "to look after". But in that case, the use of the conjunction "ale" ("but") in the song looks weird to me... That's why, in my humble opinion, the song says rather "I would spare her during the day" (a bit like a scarce resource) ... "but love her during the night"!

Roman

 

[cyanista]

Now, I found here some etymological stuff: "šanovat" stems from the German verb "schonen", and its meaning is "to spare someone", "to protect someone" and... "to respect someone" ("mít ohled na", for lack of better translation ~ "to have regard for someone", "to take one's motives into consideration").

Really? It is of Germanic origin?? How interesting!!

It's quite a common word in Belarussian. "Шанаваць" means "to have/show respect for, to honour smn/smth". Its derivatives are also widely used, i.e. they usually say "шаноўнае спадарства" when addressing the audience. (Compare for example: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren.)

In the song, I first thought I would replace it with "opatrovat", i.e. "to protect" / "to look after". But in that case, the use of the conjunction "ale" ("but") in the song looks weird to me... That's why, in my humble opinion, the song says rather "I would spare her during the day" (a bit like a scarce resource) ... "and love her during the night"!

An original thought!

Still, I would suggest a slightly different variant:

"I would honour her by day and caress her in the night"