atópico

English translation: (a figure standing outside / transcending) time, place and convention

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:atópico
English translation:(a figure standing outside / transcending) time, place and convention
Entered by: Charles Davis

22:33 Jul 18, 2019
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
Spanish term or phrase: atópico
FRom a text by an Argentine professor:

Barthes perfeccionaba en esos años una figura acrónica, atópica y atípica, la del profesor-semiólogo-crítico-artista, para quien la enseñanza es una “excursión fantasmática”, una figura que él mismo explica en casi todos los cursos, pero queda meridianamente clara en el comienzo del seminario sobre “Lo neutro”.

The only use of "atopic" I am seeing on the web is related to a skin disease. I think I know that she is getting out someone without a topic, perhaps something like meandering...but obviously the use of three words that start with "a" is important: "timeless, subject-less, and ..." any ideas?

Thanks
Wendy Gosselin
Argentina
Local time: 19:43
(a figure standing outside / transcending) time, place and convention
Explanation:
I think the only way of dealing with this, as you've suggested in your question, is to rework it completely. I can't see any way of reproducing, or even adapting, the verbal effect of the original. You could use "atemporal" for acrónico, and of course "atypical" for atípico, but I can't come up with anything comparable for atópico. And in that case I think it's better to abandon that approach completely and find another way of treating all three similarly.

It's a special use of the word anyway; in Spanish atópico is a medical term too. I'm sure that the writer is using it to mean "without place", just as acrónico means "without time". The a– prefix means "non" (as in amoral, for example), and in Greek chronos means time and topos means place. So acrónica, atópica means timeless, placeless (literally): of no time and no place.

Then again, atópico has surely been used to set up the wordplay with atípico. We can't preserve that either, because I really don't think we can imitate the Spanish and call him "atopical"; no one will understand it.

"Timeless" would work. "Placeless" would be a bit forced. But then what do you do with atípico? I can't think of a "–less" word for that.

So I offer a modest proposal to get round these problems. This is one of those cases where you have to deal with the whole phrase.
Selected response from:

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 23:43
Grading comment
thanks so much!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +5(a figure standing outside / transcending) time, place and convention
Charles Davis
3disoriented
Juan Arturo Blackmore Zerón
3unconventional - not stereotyped - nontrivial
JohnMcDove


Discussion entries: 5





  

Answers


39 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
(a figure standing outside / transcending) time, place and convention


Explanation:
I think the only way of dealing with this, as you've suggested in your question, is to rework it completely. I can't see any way of reproducing, or even adapting, the verbal effect of the original. You could use "atemporal" for acrónico, and of course "atypical" for atípico, but I can't come up with anything comparable for atópico. And in that case I think it's better to abandon that approach completely and find another way of treating all three similarly.

It's a special use of the word anyway; in Spanish atópico is a medical term too. I'm sure that the writer is using it to mean "without place", just as acrónico means "without time". The a– prefix means "non" (as in amoral, for example), and in Greek chronos means time and topos means place. So acrónica, atópica means timeless, placeless (literally): of no time and no place.

Then again, atópico has surely been used to set up the wordplay with atípico. We can't preserve that either, because I really don't think we can imitate the Spanish and call him "atopical"; no one will understand it.

"Timeless" would work. "Placeless" would be a bit forced. But then what do you do with atípico? I can't think of a "–less" word for that.

So I offer a modest proposal to get round these problems. This is one of those cases where you have to deal with the whole phrase.

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 23:43
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 296
Grading comment
thanks so much!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Andy Watkinson
9 mins
  -> Cheers, Andy :-)

agree  Chema Nieto Castañón: Very nice, as usual! ;)
3 hrs
  -> Thanks very much, Chema ;-)

agree  Carol Gullidge: Or maybe (just possibly) “unfettered by” all those things you mention... Either way, IMO, this is a good solution!
8 hrs
  -> Thanks very much, Carol! I like "unfettered" very much.

agree  neilmac: 'Unfettered' is great too... :)
8 hrs
  -> Many thanks, Neil ;-) Carol has a flair for finding the right word.

agree  Clarkalo
1 day 39 mins
  -> Thanks a lot, Clarkalo :-)
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
disoriented


Explanation:
Atópico, desubicado, fuera de lugar.

Juan Arturo Blackmore Zerón
Mexico
Local time: 17:43
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Spanish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  JohnMcDove: This does not ring right in this context. (My own interpretation may be off, but this is not the meaning one can get out of the context.)
6 days
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5 days   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
unconventional - not stereotyped - nontrivial


Explanation:
timeless, unconventional, atypical

The way I read the original is that "a-tópico" means "non-trite"

Any antonym for these would work,
NOT -
hackneyed, banal, clichéd, platitudinous, vapid, commonplace, ordinary, common, stock, conventional, stereotyped, predictable

Even "nontrivial" might work.
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/nontrivial

In Spanish I am used to the typical expression "tópico típico" which is the "typical hackneyed expression"

By the same token "atópico - atípico" its its opposite.

6. m. Ret. Lugar común que la retórica antigua convirtió en fórmulas o clichés fijos y admitidos en esquemas formales o conceptuales de que se sirvieron los escritores con frecuencia. U. m. en pl.

https://dle.rae.es/?id=a2Y9ZVb

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Note added at 5 days (2019-07-24 21:42:20 GMT)
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Es el típico tópico por excelencia. Vagos hay en todos lados. No tienen por qué ser los andaluces. De hecho, durante mi infancia, raro era el padre andaluz que ...

http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/DiaEsp/andaluz.html


Dejadme enumerar algunos de los tópicos típicos.

Marchando una de tópicos típicos de Nochevieja
http://mindfulnesscongenero.com/una-de-topicos-tipicos-por-f...

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Note added at 6 days (2019-07-24 22:40:51 GMT)
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"Non-commonplace" would fit the bill perfectly.

... it meets the requirements of originality and non-commonplace.

https://books.google.com/books?id=lIhICRQEk2IC&pg=PA125&lpg=...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes


JohnMcDove
United States
Local time: 15:43
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 16
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