Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I am not sure that "good soldier" is a correct translation.

Czech "dobrého vojáka" is more "of brave (in `dashing` conotation) soldier".

So Hašek's humor starts right from the title.




"good" is an exact translation of "dobry"

Maybe Hasek intended a double meaning of "dobry vojak" as a) good-natured soldier and b) high-quality soldier (which would be sarcasm), but TBH the option b) just never occurred to me (I'm a native Czech speaker).


"Good" ended up the default meaning in many Slavic languages, but its original meaning was much broader (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/d...), and AFAIK those other meanings are still understood if considered archaic - is that not the case in Czech?


> but its original meaning was much broader (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/d...)

Is it really that broad? There are many examples, but none really deviates from "good". In pretty much everyone of them, I could just use "good" and it would work OK.

The only reference to "dobry" meaning "brave" is this:

> Cognate with Latvian dabravecis (“brave, prudent man”).

But Czech was likely not heavily influenced by Latvian.

Honestly, I think people should just stop assuming that if word X means Y in a Slavic language A, that it should have the same meaning in a Slavic language B. I see these kind of broken assumptions very often, but there are way too many false friends for this to work.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: