Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Italian term or phrase:
retorica scomoda
English translation:
high-flown rhetoric
Italian term
retorica scomoda
Context - introduction to a book describing the life and achievements of an Italian scientist.
Pensate alla quadricromia delle teste in ascolto di una vita imprevedibile come le avventure del barone di Münchhausen e certamente più vera di quella di un qualunque flâneur nel suo Grand Tour. Niente letteratura o *retorica scomoda* per definire i confini della biografia di Arturo Malignani.È la vita di un uomo che non voleva essere un eroe: soltanto un gran lavoratore...
| 4 +1 | high-flown rhetoric |
philgoddard
|
| 4 | inconvenient rhetoric |
potra
|
| 4 | clumsy rhetoric |
Lara Barnett
|
| 3 | uncomfortable rhetoric |
Shera Lyn Parpia
|
Sep 8, 2015 16:28: philgoddard Created KOG entry
Non-PRO (1): Tom in London
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Proposed translations
United States
Six languages into flawless English
Native in: English
Works in: German to English, French to English, Spanish to English, and 4 more.
high-flown rhetoric
I think the idea is indeed "awkward" or "cumbersome", but these don't sound very natural to me. They're saying that fancy rhetoric is inappropriate to describe his life.
| I think you've hit the nail on the head, Phil. Yes, this makes sense. Thanks. |
Italy
translating meaning, not just words
Native in: English 
Works in: English to Italian, Italian to English, English
uncomfortable rhetoric
inconvenient rhetoric
United Kingdom
www.lingocraft.co.uk
Native in: English (Variants: British, Scottish, Irish, Singaporean, UK, South African)
Works in: French to English, Italian to English, Romanian to English, and 2 more.
clumsy rhetoric
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Note added at 3 hrs (2015-08-31 21:35:52 GMT)
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"The House opted to persist with this contentious claim, but when it was presented before the Lords on 8 May, Sir Dudley Digges’s CLUMSY RHETORIC seemed to imply that Buckingham had deliberately hastened the old king’s death, possibly even with Charles’s agreement."
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/me...
"We shouldn't stand for CLUMSY RHETORIC. In a speech on why Scotland............ The result is an agonisingly CLUMSY lump of rhetoric. Useless klutz."
"Pundits were surprised by McCain's CLUMSY RHETORIC, by his lack of teleprompter skills, by the fact that he stood in front of clumsy green backdrop."
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