0
   

a center person

 
 
View Profile Adverb
 
Reply Mon 19 Oct, 2009 07:35 am
In Chinese we have a phrase known as" hexinrenwu", the literal translation is a center person, meaning someone who is important or leading in ,say, a family or a social group. Is it the correct way to translate like this?
 
  2  
Reply Mon 19 Oct, 2009 08:54 am
I think you could use something like "matriarch" or "patriarch" depending on the context.
0 Replies
 
View Profile JTT
 
  1  
Reply Mon 19 Oct, 2009 11:51 am
In that situation we might use 'head honcho', 'boss', 'top dog', 'team leader', but these are more casual and I suspect that they don't have quite the same connotation as they do for Chinese.
0 Replies
 
View Profile Wy
 
  1  
Reply Mon 19 Oct, 2009 06:32 pm
Matriarch is specifically the female head of a family, and Patriarch the male head.
The terms JTT mentioned are used in casual speech. Sometimes the leader of a group has a title, like chairperson or secretary.
0 Replies
 
 

Related Topics

Let pupils abandon spelling rules, says academic - Discussion by Robert Gentel
what's the meaning of the sentence? - Question by grace-g
meaning of second paragraph - Question by tanguatlay
Affect vs. Effect. - Discussion by Anonymous
English is a messed up language... - Discussion by Monger
Jumping Jehosaphat - Discussion by Equus
What's Your No. 1 Grammar Pet Peeve? - Discussion by dupre
Why it takes awhile to understand English!! - Discussion by the reincarnation of suzy
present perfect - Discussion by bmo
 
  1. able2know
  2. » a center person
Copyright © 2009 Horizontal Verticals :: Page generated in 0.35 seconds on 11/23/2009 at 01:44:07 Top End