#16 (permalink)  
Old 10-07-2007, 08:17 PM
phila3885 phila3885 is offline
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I want to throw my two lira in-

I have no basis in Italian for this, but the veloce always seemed to mean "speed" to me. Maybe it looked too much like the english word "velocity".. Now, if it is indeed an adjective in the Italian language, then the next closest word might be "speedy".
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Now:
'62 Giulietta Sprint
'95 BMW M3

Then:
'69 Lotus Elan S4 SE
'79 Spider Veloce
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  #17 (permalink)  
Old 10-07-2007, 09:26 PM
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1,6 HF 1,6 HF is offline
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I thought this thread had died a merciful death a couple of weeks ago. Please don't take this the wrong way, Phil, but what words in other languages seem to mean to you may or may not matter much; what words look like they might mean in another language and what they actually do mean are often quite different.

To pick only the first example that comes to mind, the Italian word accidente seems like it ought to mean 'accident', but it doesn't even come close; incidente means 'accident', while accidente loosely translates as 'damn!'.

In this case, veloce (adj. or adv.) is certainly related to velocità (n.), which means 'velocity' or 'speed'. Veloce is indeed an adjective in the context of Veloce Spider or Gran Turismo Veloce, which means that 'speedy' is fine, if you happen to like that word. Personally, 'speedy' always make me think of an old Alka Seltzer ad, and I tend to use 'fast' rather than 'speedy' when describing cars, but if you prefer 'speedy' to 'fast', that's just fine. Other than personal preference, though, I wouldn't want to argue that either of the two is any 'closer' to veloce than the other. YMMV.
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Last edited by 1,6 HF; 10-07-2007 at 09:33 PM.
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  #18 (permalink)  
Old 10-07-2007, 09:46 PM
phila3885 phila3885 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1,6 HF View Post
I thought this thread had died a merciful death a couple of weeks ago. Please don't take this the wrong way, Phil, but what words in other languages seem to mean to you may or may not matter much; what words look like they might mean in another language and what they actually do mean are often quite different.

To pick only the first example that comes to mind, the Italian word accidente seems like it ought to mean 'accident', but it doesn't even come close; incidente means 'accident', while accidente loosely translates as 'damn!'.

In this case, veloce (adj. or adv.) is certainly related to velocità (n.), which means 'velocity' or 'speed'. Veloce is indeed an adjective in the context of Veloce Spider or Gran Turismo Veloce, which means that 'speedy' is fine, if you happen to like that word. Personally, 'speedy' always make me think of an old Alka Seltzer ad, and I tend to use 'fast' rather than 'speedy' when describing cars, but if you prefer 'speedy' to 'fast', that's just fine. Other than personal preference, though, I wouldn't want to argue that either of the two is any 'closer' to veloce than the other. YMMV.
Ed- No argument at all. That's why I preferenced it with "no basis in Italian".
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Now:
'62 Giulietta Sprint
'95 BMW M3

Then:
'69 Lotus Elan S4 SE
'79 Spider Veloce
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  #19 (permalink)  
Old 10-13-2007, 10:50 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1,6 HF View Post
I thought this thread had died a merciful death a couple of weeks ago. Please don't take this the wrong way, Phil, but what words in other languages seem to mean to you may or may not matter much; what words look like they might mean in another language and what they actually do mean are often quite different.

To pick only the first example that comes to mind, the Italian word accidente seems like it ought to mean 'accident', but it doesn't even come close; incidente means 'accident', while accidente loosely translates as 'damn!'.

In this case, veloce (adj. or adv.) is certainly related to velocità (n.), which means 'velocity' or 'speed'. Veloce is indeed an adjective in the context of Veloce Spider or Gran Turismo Veloce, which means that 'speedy' is fine, if you happen to like that word. Personally, 'speedy' always make me think of an old Alka Seltzer ad, and I tend to use 'fast' rather than 'speedy' when describing cars, but if you prefer 'speedy' to 'fast', that's just fine. Other than personal preference, though, I wouldn't want to argue that either of the two is any 'closer' to veloce than the other. YMMV.
Ciao 1,6
In my humble Italian opinion I would have to agree with your conclusion that when ALFA chose to describe that model as velove they meant FAST. It's interesting to note however that some would say that the term spider is a mispronounciation of the English word "speeder"
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