Friday 29 November 2013

Victimator

Victimator: noun. Through the very arduous study of the Spanish-English dictionary by James Mabbe (a very important Spanish to English translator of the seventeenth century), it had been found that many words in Spanish do not have an English equivalent. One of these words, James Mabbe noted, was victimario, basically translating to "one who victimises others." The fact that this word appeared in a piece of very rhythmical Spanish poetry led Mabbe to create the word victimator, since "one who victimises others" was a bit too wordy for proper poetic translation. The result of Mabbe's research is the following excerpt: 

The dark of the room had been looming on me,
I drew to the fiery fiend,
It's tongue had been spitting and fuming on me,
The moment came when we convened.

And as I stepped close, the incinerator,
Which had been turned on by my wife,
Became my whole body's foul victimator,
I ended up losing my life.

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