Language desk
< July 13	<< Jun \| July \| Aug >>	July 15 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 14

jump the fence & leave a gap in the air

Thanks in advance The following sentence is found in Episode in Palmetto by Eraskin Caldwell.

So I asked him if he'd be likelyto make a bid for you himself,
supposing just in case his present wife happened to jump the fence, 
and he said hell yes he'd do it so quick he'd leave a gap in the aire 
behind him.

Would you please the meaning of 'jump the fence' and 'leave a gap in the behind him.118.5.231.89 (talk) 07:20, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To "jump the fence" presumably means to leave him. As for "leave a gap in the air", they are having a bit of fun. If you could move quickly enough, a vacuum would indeed form behind you (see cavitation), but this, of course, is far faster than any person can actually move under their own power. So, the meaning is that if his wife left him he would be most eager to chase after his next love. StuRat (talk) 07:28, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Neither of these is an established idiom as far as I know, but the meaning is clear in context, as StuRat says. They are both examples of metaphor, with the first one conceiving marriage as a kind of prison surrounded by a fence, and the second as StuRat suggests. --ColinFine (talk) 10:10, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Urban Dictionary has 1. "jumping the fence"; "it's the moment when you are trapped in a bad situation, and you are quickly trying to get away hoping things won't get worse." I would have said the metaphore was more likely to be that of a horse escaping from a paddock, but who knows? Alansplodge (talk) 12:39, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Jump the fence is (or was) a common enough metaphor from horses as Alansplodge says. My father once set off an M80 which left a coffee-can sized dent in the surface of the water off the end of the dock for about a week. The gap in the air metaphor is not unheardof either, not that I have a reference beyond The Road Runner. μηδείς (talk) 22:03, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It left a dent in the water for a week ? Was this water frozen, by any chance ? StuRat (talk) 22:06, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See standing wave. μηδείς (talk) 17:15, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm surprised The Urban Dictionary doesn't record that people who were ostensibly straight all their lives but come out as gay are sometimes said to have "jumped the fence". Not that there's any obvious relevance to this Erskine Caldwell text. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 22:52, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Never heard such a phrase Jack, and I worked for Christopher Street Magazine. μηδείς (talk) 22:57, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And presumably bisexuals are "on the fence", which sounds like a rather painful place to have sex (although some people might enjoy the barbed wire). :-) StuRat (talk) 23:10, 14 July 2012 (UTC) [reply]

Ouch. Well, it's not quite as popular as I thought, but it's definitely out there. See [1], [2], [3], and [4]. Also, see Definition 4 here. This uses it to refer to someone who's changed their mind, but in a gay context, which I read as a play on the meaning I know.

It's commonly used by someone who isn't gay but is prepared to temporarily change sides because of someone of the same sex they find so mind-blowingly attractive that they'd even go to bed with them (e.g. a guy saying "I'm not the least bit gay but I'd definitely jump the fence for Brad Pitt"). Maybe not a very serious usage, but common enough. See Definition 6 here.

Urban Dictionary does have this definition, but under "Jump the fence" rather than "Jumping the fence". I saw it but thought it might lead us off-topic a bit. There are also lots of hits for the same phrase meaning to cheat on your spouse. Alansplodge (talk) 17:10, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, the same search pulled up news about a so-called religious so-called leader who advocates putting all lesbians, queers and homosexuals behind an electrified fence and letting them all starve to death. It's so comforting to have a spiritual adviser we can all rely on to explain how Jesus wants us to treat people, just in case we weren't sure. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 00:47, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have never been conflicted. I had a crush on Steve Austin, Jaime Sommers, and Max, when I was six. μηδείς (talk) 01:25, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I know your type. Anything with legs will do, eh? :) -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 03:18, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

And metal parts. μηδείς (talk) 03:33, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Which Max? From Hart to Hart? From Where the Wild Things Are? Angr (talk) 16:37, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

List_of_The_Bionic_Woman_episodes#Season_three μηδείς (talk) 17:15, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've always wondered why people use underscores in multi-word links instead of good ol' spaces. Can you shed any light on this, Medeis? -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 03:51, 16 July 2012 (UTC) [reply]

It's just an artifact from the cut-and-paste from the url box of my browser. Sometimes I remover the underscores, but have been having keyboard issues recently (the computer I prefer for wp editting is hitting return for me before I do so myself), so I didn't bother in this case. μηδείς (talk) 03:55, 16 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that explains this case. Lots of editors do it all the time, but for no good reason that I've ever divined. One of life's mysteries, I guess. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 22:53, 16 July 2012 (UTC) [reply]

Arabic help requested

This http://massai.ahram.org.eg/Inner.aspx?ContentID=39936 is appently an article from Al Ahram reporting that Mohamed El Naschie was a candidate in the recent Egyption presidential election. Can an Arabic speaker confirm - if so worth adding to the article I think MuppetLabTech (talk) 19:57, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes indeed, this is a news piece reporting that Mohamed El Naschie announced his nomination to the recent Egyptian presidential election. Whether he actually pursued the nomination by following the formal procedure, or whether his name appeared on the ballot cannot be concluded from the article. --Hisham1987 (talk) 19:13, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sanskrit pronunciation

How is Saraswati (सरस्वती) pronounced in IPA? --108.225.117.142 (talk) 21:27, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

[ˈsərəsʋət̪iː]. Angr (talk) 22:35, 14 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]