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Cumsi cumsa

Posted by Smokey Stover on July 05, 2007

In Reply to: Cumsi cumsa posted by pamela on July 02, 2007

: : : I don't know how to spell it right but it goes "cumsi cumsa" need to know meaning and origin

: :
: : Ooh, la, la! That one is French, to wit, "Comme ci, comme ça," meaning "like this, like that." In English you could say, "Oh, up and down," or "So-so" or, "This way, that way." How to translate it depends on the question. Perhaps someone whose French is better than mine can give an answer better than mine.
: : SS

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: There is a guesture that goes with this. You stick out your hand and move it from side to side alternatively showing your palm and back of the hand. Pamela

I use that gesture frequently myself. I don't know where I learned it, although it may have been in Italy, the land of speaking through gestures. There the words that most often go with the gesture are something like, "Eh! Eh!" The eyebrows typically go up with each "Eh!"

This meaning corresponds to the first of two translations that I have ascribed to "Comme ci, comme ça," that is, "up and down," or "sometimes up, sometimes down." You can also use the gesture described by Pamela (in Italy) while saying "Muh!" meaning, sometimes, "Who can say?" or something like. You can also use it while wordlessly pulling the corners of your mouth down and elevating your eyebrows.

In Italian you may also used the gesture while saying, "Cosi cosi" (so-so). This equivocates to the second sense I have ascribed to "comme ci, comee ça," also meaning "so-so."

Neither my French nor my Italian is current, so if you tell me I am wrong, I'll believe you.
SS

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