taffeldækker

English translation: table-decker

22:09 Aug 16, 2014
Danish to English translations [PRO]
Other / employee at court or in large households
Danish term or phrase: taffeldækker
my text is actually about a ´taffeldækkerjakke´ that has been the inspiration for a uniform jacket.

It only mentions it briefly, but there is a picture here:
http://www.b.dk/danmark/til-bords-med-praecision

Thanks for any suggestions!
Christine Andersen
Denmark
Local time: 15:00
English translation:table-decker
Explanation:
According to the Dictionary of the Dano-Norwegian and English Languages, by A. Larsen, Gyldendal 1910.
Selected response from:

Diarmuid Kennan
Ireland
Local time: 14:00
Grading comment
Thanks, that is really useful. I was wondering whether just to say butler, but it is great to get the precise term used in the text!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4table-decker
Diarmuid Kennan
Summary of reference entries provided
table setter / plate setter / livery jacket
andres-larsen

  

Answers


11 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
table-decker


Explanation:
According to the Dictionary of the Dano-Norwegian and English Languages, by A. Larsen, Gyldendal 1910.

Diarmuid Kennan
Ireland
Local time: 14:00
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 124
Grading comment
Thanks, that is really useful. I was wondering whether just to say butler, but it is great to get the precise term used in the text!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)




Reference comments


1 hr
Reference: table setter / plate setter / livery jacket

Reference information:
Barack Obama's visit to UK and Ireland: as it happened day one ...
www.telegraph.co.uk/.../Barack-Obamas-visit-to-UK-and-Irela...
This evening's state banquet will require seven hours just to lay the table, apparently. CNN's royal expert says that the ***table-setter*** uses a tape measure to get the distance between glasses exactly right.

rule of thumb - Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rule_of_thumb‎
Another theory notes that English royal banquet ***plate setters*** used the distance of their thumbs to equally space each plate from the table edge.

Rule of thumb dictionary definition | rule of thumb defined
www.yourdictionary.com/rule-of-thumb
Some suggested origins include the fact that the inch originated as the distance between the base of the thumbnail and the first joint, the practice of approximating the general direction of the wind by wetting the thumb then raising it in the air, and the rule of English Royal banquet ***plate setters*** using the distance of the thumb to equally space each plate from the table edge.

Butler Did It -
books.google.com/books?isbn=1426881835
Kasey Michaels - ‎2010 - Fiction
Riley said, pulling down at his livery jacket. “Would there be something you'd be wanting?” “Yes, but as it would probably get me hanged, I'll forgo the pleasure.

What the Butler Saw: Two Hundred and Fifty Years of the Servant ... -
books.google.co.ve/books?isbn=0571295185
E. S. Turner - ‎2012 - History
Sir Edward Hulton tells of a nouveau riche hostess who replaced her set of footmen with a row of handsome, strapping 'foot girls,' who wore blue livery jackets, ...

Baldwinsville NY Gazette Farmers Journal 1908 ... - FultonHistory.com
fultonhistory.com/.../Baldwinsville%20NY%20Gazette%20Farmers%20Journal%201908%20Jan...
The emperor of Austria holds lengthy dinners In detestation ... the emperor's "tafeldecker," or grooms of the table, are the chief gainers by this arrangement, as all food left over goes to them as a perquisite.

askSam Web Publisher
wwii-server.history.fsu.edu/scripts/as_web6.exe?Command...‎
But the old ***"Table-setter" (Tafeldecker- a forefather whose job it was to set the table for some royalty***. He was supposedly extremely quick and funny) is still alive ...


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2014-08-17 01:39:48 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

formal table setting:

Dinner party 101: What I learned from Charles the Butler (no relaxing!)
www.theglobeandmail.com/life/.../dinner.../article11667912/
A good chunk of that time was spent setting the table, measuring tape in hand. (Charles the Butler is particularly pernickety about symmetry.) “One of the first rules of ***formal table setting*** is the 24-inch [61-centimetre] rule,” he writes. “This refers to the ideal amount of space from the centre of one plate to the centre of the next plate, allowing the guest plenty of elbow room.”

10 Facts About Dinner with the Queen - United Kingdom Travel
gouk.about.com/od/.../10-Facts-About-Dinner-With-The-Queen.htm‎
With an eye for possible TV coverage from above, the position of everything on the table is measured with a tape measure.

andres-larsen
Venezuela
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 35
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.


See also:
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search