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un inutile polverone

English translation: a senseless tumult

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Italian term or phrase:un inutile polverone
English translation:a senseless tumult
Entered by: Barbara Cochran, MFA

22:15 Mar 21, 2019
Italian to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / In A Book On The History Of Geographical Explorations/Discoveries
Italian term or phrase: un inutile polverone
Contesto (Vikings' discovery of America):

La Vinland Map è un chiaro esempio della forza dei pregiudizi, che come tutti i pregiudizi, ha finito per creare un inutile polverone intorno a un evento storico che non lo meritava.

Anything better than "useless controversy"?

Grazie,

Barbara
Barbara Cochran, MFA
United States
Local time: 09:39
senseless tumult
Explanation:
In 1916, knowing like Yeats what it was like to be led astray by all that senseless tumult,

https://books.google.de/books?id=nvGuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA132&lpg=P...

...by proposing questions vain in themselves, but well calculated to inflame the mind, and thereby to lose in senseless tumult the whole time fixed for a session.

https://books.google.de/books?id=st0RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA959&lpg=P...
Selected response from:

Wendy Streitparth
Germany
Local time: 15:39
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +2a pointless smokescreen
Andrew Bramhall
4 +1useless hot air
Lara Barnett
4 +1raising an unnecessary dust cloud
Lisa Jane
4useless fuss
Daniela Cannarella
3senseless tumult
Wendy Streitparth


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


5 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
useless fuss


Explanation:
https://context.reverso.net/traduzione/inglese-italiano/fuss...

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Note added at 14 mins (2019-03-21 22:29:17 GMT)
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if you prefer you can choose "pointless discussion" or "useless debate"

Daniela Cannarella
Italy
Local time: 15:39
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in ItalianItalian
PRO pts in category: 4
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you, but the register is academic.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Lara Barnett: I find "useless fuss" a bit tautologous. A more compatible adjective should really be used with "fuss", such as "terrible fuss" for example.
1 hr
neutral  Andrew Bramhall: Doesn't really fit;
2 hrs
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
a pointless smokescreen


Explanation:
around an historical event which didn't deserve it;

Andrew Bramhall
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:39
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 26

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Wendy Streitparth: Didn't see your answer!
6 hrs
  -> Thanks!
agree  Lara Barnett
2 days 14 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
useless hot air


Explanation:
I do not think the text is explicitly saying "controversies" through the use of "polverone". Our equivalent of "dust cloud" would be something like "hot air",

"Hot Air:
empty, exaggerated, or pretentious talk or writing:
His report on the company's progress was just so much hot air."
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hot-air?s=t

In my experience this can be used either formally or informally, but I think it works in this text in the same way that "dust cloud" is being used to spice up the formal narrative like a metaphor - i.e. similar metaphoric style albeit different imagery with dust and air.

You could also say :
"...to create nothing more than a load of useless hot air around a historic event....."

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Note added at 1 hr (2019-03-22 00:11:20 GMT)
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Re. "controversies", I am aware that this was a controversial issue, but I just do not see "controversy" conveyed through the use of "polverone" specifically.

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Note added at 3 hrs (2019-03-22 01:50:59 GMT)
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I am aware this is an academic or formal text, but the use of individual words or phrases is not what makes a tense formal or informal. Is 'polverone" an academic word?

Example sentence(s):
  • "Cynical observers of UK politics might remark that MPs in the House of Commons produce a lot of USELESS HOT AIR."
  • "Massive wind farm expansion plans for Wirral coast branded 'USELESS HOT AIR' "

    https://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2013/march/hot-air-in-the-house-of-commons
    https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/9012321.Massive_wind_farm_expansion_plans_for_Wirral_coast_branded__useless_hot_air_/
Lara Barnett
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:39
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 87
1 corroborated select project
in this pair and field What is ProZ.com Project History(SM)?
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks, but like I said before, the register is academic.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Mauro Ciaccio
36 mins
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

8 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
raising an unnecessary dust cloud


Explanation:
Or

Kicking up dust unnecessarily around a historical event...

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Note added at 8 hrs (2019-03-22 06:37:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

To kick up dust:

To make a fuss about something trivial or noncontroversial.
1930, James Dalessandro, 1906 - a Novel:
Shanghai Kelly has been kicking up dust about the war on the crimps and boardinghouse keepers.
2011, Gary Andrew Poole, PacMan, →ISBN:
He kicked up dust about how we really didn't have our facts straight regarding his allegedly loaded gloves.
2011, Falling Rain, Ouroboros: Road of Legend, →ISBN, page 318:
She was certain she was about to kick up dust about her mother just as Setsuka had done about Mitsu's death eighteen years ago.
2015, Larry Moran, Laughing through Life, →ISBN:
On he went to the international accounts, where he vapored over the balance of payments accounts, kicked up dust about foreign investment in the United States and US investment abroad, and gasconaded over the US international debt position.

Lisa Jane
Italy
Local time: 15:39
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in ItalianItalian
PRO pts in category: 496

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Lara Barnett: I like this.
7 hrs
  -> Thanks Lara:-)
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9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
senseless tumult


Explanation:
In 1916, knowing like Yeats what it was like to be led astray by all that senseless tumult,

https://books.google.de/books?id=nvGuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA132&lpg=P...

...by proposing questions vain in themselves, but well calculated to inflame the mind, and thereby to lose in senseless tumult the whole time fixed for a session.

https://books.google.de/books?id=st0RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA959&lpg=P...

Wendy Streitparth
Germany
Local time: 15:39
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 81
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