1266 Etymology of the babelfish
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 01:43:58 -0500
From: Clayton Beach <akumushi@ONEBOX.COM>
Subject: Etymology of the babelfish
If I'm not mistaken, the origin of the "Babel fish" is in Douglas Adam's science fiction novel "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." I think the online translator just ripped him off (or payed him dearly, but his book certainly preceded the service). The Babel fish was a little fish that you could put in your ear, after which it would live symbiotically with you, translating any galactic language into words you could understand. Perhaps if we all had a Babel fish this thread would have been extinct long ago...
Is no one else a science fiction reader on the list?
--
Clayton
akumushi@onebox.com
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 02:15:11 -0400
From: Dirk J Bakker <dbakker@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: Etymology of the babelfish
Thank you, Clayton. Though in a limited capacity, at least I admit I
knew what the reference to the Babelfish was and saw it for the
tongue-in-cheek reference it was, hehe. Additionally, I suggested to
Sergio (and/or the readership) if he knew what the expression "Don't
feed the Trolls" was in spanish, if he did, he would ignore the "Petty
Payton Place" this thread signifies to me.
I guess it is better to trust our own babelfish than a poor translator,
virtual or living.
Dirk
Clayton Beach wrote:
> If I'm not mistaken, the origin of the "Babel fish" is in Douglas
> Adam's science fiction novel "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." I
> think the online translator just ripped him off (or payed him dearly,
> but his book certainly preceded the service). The Babel fish was a
> little fish that you could put in your ear, after which it would live
> symbiotically with you, translating any galactic language into words
> you could understand. Perhaps if we all had a Babel fish this thread
> would have been extinct long ago...
> Is no one else a science fiction reader on the list?
> --
> Clayton
> akumushi@onebox.com
>
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 04:29:55 -0400
From: Dirk J Bakker <dbakker@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: Etymology of the babelfish
Further reading: https://www.bridgescore.de/alien/site1/bablefish.html
Clayton Beach wrote:
> If I'm not mistaken, the origin of the "Babel fish" is in Douglas
> Adam's science fiction novel "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." I
> think the online translator just ripped him off (or payed him dearly,
> but his book certainly preceded the service). The Babel fish was a
> little fish that you could put in your ear, after which it would live
> symbiotically with you, translating any galactic language into words
> you could understand. Perhaps if we all had a Babel fish this thread
> would have been extinct long ago...
> Is no one else a science fiction reader on the list?
> --
> Clayton
> akumushi@onebox.com
>
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 10:47:21 +0200
From: Christian Lüthen <christian.luethen@GMX.NET>
Subject: Re: Etymology of the babelfish
On 11 May 2003 at 1:43, Clayton Beach wrote:
> If I'm not mistaken, the origin of the "Babel fish" is in Douglas
> Adam's science fiction novel "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
mostly correct!
actually it did not start as a novel but as a BBC radio series: the
first broadcast of part on of the "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the
Galaxy" was on march 8th, 1978. Very fast "THHTTG" [google on that
one as well ;-) ] became famous. The books followed (later even a
very badly done TV-series).
"The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" started a 'trilogy' of books
and was followed by
"The Restaurant at the end of the Universe",
"Life, the universe and everything"
The fourth [sic!] book of the 'trilogy' came out as
"So long, and thanks for all the fish", only a couple of year's later
to be followed by "the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately
named Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy" (as states the
cover) named
"Mostly Harmless".
A book number six in the series was pushlished posthum:
"The Salmon of doubt".
The whole series is *cult* to a million public wordwide! trigger-
words as "Don't Panic' ("written in large friendly laters"),
"pangalactic gargle blaster", the deaper meaning of the number "42"
are deriving from THHGTTG as do some famous caracters as "Arthur
Dent", "Zaphod Beeblebrox", "Ford Prefect" and the notoriously
depressed and paranoid android "Marvin". Thousends of computers and
internet-servers world wide are named after either personage or
places out of the book ie. "Magrathea", or "Heart of gold".
The whole book/series is a masterpiece of english humor! [if you do
not like it: do not read it.]
Actually it happens to play somewhere in far future [ie. at the
"Restaurant at the (timely) end of the universe"] (but also in the
very beginning, "The Big Bang Burger Bar") involving *a lot* of time
travelling and space ship stuff one the other hand it reads as a very
ironical *anti science fiction*. but not only that: there's also a
lot of social criticism.
interestingly enough (and I do not really believe in conspirancy!)
it's today that this subject comes op: Douglas Noel Adams died
*pricisely* two years ago of sudden heart attack on may 11th, 2001.
I will put some references:
[about his death]
https://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A5932
[CNN on that, incl. hommage]
https://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/books/05/12/adams.death/
[and the BBC]
https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1326657.stm
his biography:
https://www.douglasadams.com/dna/bio.html
a general google search would be
https://www.google.com/search?q=douglas+adams&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-
8&oe=UTF-8
interestingly enough he did not only stay with science fiction
[allthough he had another one called 'Starship Titanic' -
https://www.starshiptitanic.com/ ] but also wrote a book about
travelling together with biologist Mark Carwardine to wild animals
bound to be extinct, check "Last chance to see".
Perhaps this last book also supports a reason why feature such a
[OT?] posting in tango-L as on this review-page
https://www.greenmanreview.com/last.chance.htm
the word "tango" occurs! :-)
also, at least in the german version, the fitth part of the first
books radio series was called "a tango at the end of the world".
> I
> think the online translator just ripped him off (or payed him dearly,
> but his book certainly preceded the service).
of course: DNA came out with his book in 1978, the WWW saw the light
of the internet just 10 years ago.
> The Babel fish was a
> little fish that you could put in your ear, after which it would live
> symbiotically with you, translating any galactic language into words
> you could understand.
the fish actually "feeds" on brainwaves. :)
> Perhaps if we all had a Babel fish this thread
> would have been extinct long ago... Is no one else a science fiction
> reader on the list?
sure! :-)
happy tango'ing, here, there, and in the whole universe!
christian
christian@eTanguero.net
https://www.eTanguero.net/
