Sh*t show

[Callaina]

(Excuse the profanity, please.) I had a friend ask me today how to translate the phrase "shit show" into Latin.

For those whose first language is not English and who may not know the phrase, it means something (usually an event, often involving multiple people) that's totally messed up, to the point of hilarity. For example, a play where the actors don't know their lines and the stagehands are disorganized...or a Donald Trump speech.

Any suggestions? Obviously a literal translation won't cut it, but I feel sure the Romans must've had some idiomatic phrase to express this idea.

 

[Bitmap]

Well, a 'show' would be spectaculum ... and then you add any pejorative adjective you like (preferably in the superlative, I suppose) ... e.g. spectaculum miserabile/miserabilissimum/miserrimum/stultissimum/stolidissimum/pessimum.

or a Donald Trump speech.

His speeches are pretty good, actually. in my opinion.

 

[Callaina]

Well, a 'show' would be spectaculum ... and then you add any pejorative adjective you like (preferably in the superlative, I suppose) ... e.g. spectaculum miserabile/miserabilissimum/miserrimum/stultissimum/stolidissimum/pessimum.

Makes sense -- I was just wondering if there were some specific attested phrase.

His speeches are pretty good, actually. in my opinion.

LOL, no comment.

 

[Deleted member 13757]

Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shit-show (n.)
a disaster; chaos.

You should go from there.

----

But nothing wrong with just saying merda fuit. It was shit.

Circumlata diu mensis scribilita secundis
urebat nimio saeva calore manus;
sed magis ardebat Sabidi gula: protinus ergo
sufflavit buccis terque quaterque suis.
Illa quidem tepuit digitosque admittere visa est,
sed nemo potuit tangere: merda fuit.

 

[Deleted member 13757]

His speeches are pretty good, actually. in my opinion.

Like

 

[Pacifica]

Mera mapalia comes to mind. It may not be quite as forcefull as "shit show" but it still conveys something similar, I think.

PHI Latin Texts - Word Search

 

[Callaina]

Mera mapalia comes to mind. It may not be quite as forcefull as "shit show" but it still conveys something similar, I think.

PHI Latin Texts - Word Search

That sounds like a phrase that would work very well (and it's alliterative)! Thanks.

 

[Bitmap]

I remember that it meant something like 'useless stuff' (~ nugas) in the Apocolocyntosis ... L&S goves ot as 'house of ill repute' in Petronius:

Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, măpālĭa

II. Transf.
A. A house of ill-repute, Petr. S. 58, 13.—
B. Useless things, follies, Sen. Apoc. 9, 1.

 

[Pacifica]

I'm not sure what made them think it meant "house of ill repute" in the Petronius passage (which is included in my link above) unless L&S meant it as a watered-down Gallicism for "bordel" = "awful mess", lol.

The OLD defines the figurative meaning of mapalia as "app. as a term of abuse w. ref. to disorderly conduct".