Space ALC: my favorite general online dictionary, that treasure-trove of excellent example sentences and entirely bizarre translation possibilities, that bright spot in the depths of translation despair. (Some are a little NSFW for language.)
Let’s start out with a submission from E, who was looking up お嬢さん, a term similar to Mademoiselle or Miss that recalls “a young lady of good breeding.”
E was most amused by bubeleh, but I’m rather fond of ladykin and toots. Also, please note that it is required by law for every other ALC example to have a quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Sir, please, there is a lady present!
“bleep-hole”
This is legitimately one of the best translations I’ve ever seen for 惜しい and “close but no cigar.”
The slang is funny, but the note about “used in Boston” really makes the entry:
“This word is used in Boston.”
All of our trendy portmanteaux will come back to haunt us:
See also: “pimped out”
禁物: a taboo, something forbidden, a big… no-no.
I’m pretty much done with this chapter of Fun with ALC, and it’s just as fucking well.
Want more awesome ALC translations? Check out Part 1 here or send your submissions to my twitter at @odorunara.
The Lobster Dance 
I’ve always thought 惜しい had a connotation of it being terribly severe, difficult, unfortunate that you’ve come so close but missed it. But, reading this entry, I wonder if I’ve just sort of conflated it with certain other -shii words, like くるしい。 Do you think oshii genuinely has that connotation? Or am I off?
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Ha! I love these, thanks for sharing. I think I need to add some Boston-speak to my English vocabulary.
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Has anyone else had all of the examples with 全文表示 completely disappear in their ALC search results? It’s made ALC a lot less useful. I’m beginning to miss the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle quotes.
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[…] Part 1 | Part 2 […]
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