Glossary entry

Polish term or phrase:

ni to, ni sio

English translation:

in context: betwixed and between being scary and silly/funny

Added to glossary by Jacek Kloskowski
Feb 3, 2015 20:01
9 yrs ago
Polish term

ni to, ni sio

Polish to English Art/Literary Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
przedstawiać będą różne zmutowane, hybrydalne postaci, ni to straszne, ni to śmieszne (opis obrazu)
Change log

Feb 5, 2015 21:43: Jacek Kloskowski Created KOG entry

Proposed translations

1 hr
Selected

in context: betwixed and between being scary and silly/funny

Idioms

betwixt and between, neither the one nor the other; in a middle or unresolved position:
Not wanting to side with either her father or her mother, she was betwixt and between.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/betwixt and between

The word “betwixt,” by the way, is an old-fashioned version of “between,” though both words have been around in various forms since Anglo-Saxon times.

The Oxford English Dictionary describes “betwixt” as somewhat archaic in literary English and chiefly poetical.

However, the expression “betwixt and between,” meaning neither one thing nor the other, is a relative newcomer.

The earliest citation in the OED is from Frederick Marryat’s maritime novel Newton Forster (1832), which refers to “the lease of a house in a betwixt and between fashionable street.”

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2009/10/betwixt-and-betwee...

usage example:

The years from 18 until 25 and even beyond have become a distinct and separate life stage, a strange transitional never-never land between adolescence and adulthood in which people stall for a few extra years, putting off the iron cage of adult responsibility that constantly threatens to crash down on them. They’re betwixt and between.” “Twixters,” then, refers to those people betwixt and between being teenagers and adults.

http://www.challies.com/general-news/the-twixters

The omnium is betwixt and between, combining as it does timed and bunch events.

Betwixt and between, it's not easy being a federal appeals court judge.

She played the part of spurned lover well, performing the range betwixt betrayal and rage.

Betwixt and between, neither fish nor fowl, and upset at all three of the above groups.

Obama says Americans feel a sense of urgency, but they appear caught betwixt and between.

Betwixt and between, he intersperses rhythmic lick-ety-split soliloquies.

They can't help that their MCC brethren are betwixt and between rebuilding and reloading.

Named for the Roman goddess, Juno rules a region betwixt and between adulthood and kidhood.

http://fraze.it/sentences_using_betwixt
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thank you, it really works in this context"
+3
8 mins

neither man nor beast

Commonly used option.
Peer comment(s):

agree magdadh : ...i pasuje do tego surrealistycznego image
19 mins
;-). Kind thanks, magdadh.
agree George BuLah (X) : nomen omen :)
12 hrs
;-) Thanks, George.
agree Jacek Konopka
17 hrs
Kind thanks, Jacku.
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3 hrs

nor fearsome, nor comic

lub inne synonimy „strasznych” i „ śmiesznych” ..

frightening, alarming, terrifying, petrifying, hair-raising, spine-chilling, blood-curdling, bone-chilling, chilling, horrifying, nerve-racking, fearsome, unnerving; eerie, sinister; informalcreepy, spine-tingling, spooky, hairy


amusing, humorous, witty, comic, comical, droll, facetious, jocular, jokey; hilarious, hysterical, riotous, uproarious; entertaining,
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+1
5 mins

neither fish nor fowl

IMO English idiom

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Note added at 3 hrs (2015-02-03 23:33:52 GMT)
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Something or someone which is not easily categorized; something or someone that does not rightly belong or fit well in a given group or situation.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neither_fish_nor_fowl
ccccccccccccccc

Having no specific characteristics or category, not easily characterized. The phrase, which was originally “neither fish nor flesh nor fowl,” appeared in slightly different form in a 16th-century collection of proverbs as “neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring”: fish for monks who ate no meat, flesh for people who could afford meat, and cheap herring for the poor.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/neither fish nor fowl
Peer comment(s):

agree Darius Saczuk
18 mins
Thank you Dariusz.
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