Two expressions

Posted by Smokey Stover on June 20, 2005

In Reply to: Two expressions posted by claudia on June 20, 2005

: hallo! what do you think is the meaning of being "an expert on the history of the barrel"? and of "condemned warehouse"? I found these two expression in a short story I'm translating from english to italian, the authour is from Canada...
: thank you very much

The first expression is straightforward. "Un' esperto nella storia delle botti," if I remember my Italian. Every technology, every device, even the barrel, has its history, and most of them have their experts.

The second expression, "condemned warehouse," comes from the fact that building inspectors for the city have to determine that buildings are fit for occupancy, and a warehouse that's falling down will be disapproved, or "condemned." This means that it must repaired before being put in use, or else torn down. But it can sit unoccupied and "condemned" for quite a while. Illegal occupancy of condemned buildings is known occasionally to happen, sad to say. SS