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What does “Pike that” mean？

SilentSwordSilentSword Member Posts: 50
in Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
I'm working on the SOD Chinese language pack and I don't know how to translate this “Pike that” , I search it in google and no applicable answer.
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Comments

  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,882
    edited June 2023
    It's fictional slang from outside the protagonist's experience; the speaker is a tiefling from Sigil. Your best bets for finding it elsewhere (and possibly translated) are Planescape source materials and the Planescape: Torment game.

    The general meaning is clear enough from context; an emphatic negation, probably something like "No way!" or even "%^& No!" (obscenity intentionally censored) in standard modern English. But of course, it shouldn't be translated into an actual modern idiom because of its role as "alien" slang.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 3,882
    Another thought, this time about the literal meaning. English has a habit of turning nouns into verbs, and one well-established example there is "spear". As a verb, it means to impale something on a spear or similar long pointy implement. One of the meanings of "pike", and the relevant one here, is a particularly long kind of spear. So, literally, this bit of slang is saying "impale that on a really big spear".
    That might be something you can work with for a translation. Alien but comprehensible, since it's built on patterns that already exist in the language.
  • DhariusDharius Member Posts: 665
    Yes, "pike" is the f-word in Sigil slang...so the term can be more tastefully described as "forget that".
  • SilentSwordSilentSword Member Posts: 50
    jmerry wrote: »
    Another thought, this time about the literal meaning. English has a habit of turning nouns into verbs, and one well-established example there is "spear". As a verb, it means to impale something on a spear or similar long pointy implement. One of the meanings of "pike", and the relevant one here, is a particularly long kind of spear. So, literally, this bit of slang is saying "impale that on a really big spear".
    That might be something you can work with for a translation. Alien but comprehensible, since it's built on patterns that already exist in the language.

    I see, thank you for your reply. though both "pike" and "that" are english works, but "pike that" has no mean in english. So the either the english players and <charname> in game can not understand it. I would use a meanless Chinese word to translate it.
  • SilentSwordSilentSword Member Posts: 50
    Dharius wrote: »
    Yes, "pike" is the f-word in Sigil slang...so the term can be more tastefully described as "forget that".

    thank you
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