Newspaper Jargon

[ColeBOzbourne]

     This branch feels a bit dead lately, so I thought talking about a corpse might liven things up a little. In the book Thai For Advanced Readers by Poomsan Becker there are short samples of newspaper stories. I typically shy away from them as they use notoriously confusing jargon, but have given one a try and would like some help with a few phrases. The story is about fire fighters responding to a house fire and finding some unlucky individual that was not able to escape.

 

     The title of the story is: คลอกเฒ่าสยอง  I know คลอก means ‘to burn’, and สยอง means something ‘dreadful, shocking or fearful’. But am wondering about the significance of เฒ่า (old) in the middle. Is it actually referring to ‘old’ as in age, or just an expression possibly like, “Oh, that’s a nasty old wound you have there.” Even if the wound were recent.

 

     I found it interesting that they describe the corpse as: ถูกไฟคลอกศพดำเป็นตอตะโก  Which roughly means ‘the corpse was burned as black as a persimmon stump’. Google tells me the heartwood of a persimmon tree is indeed black, and my Thai girlfriend says this is a typical way of describing a crispy-critter that is totally burned beyond recognition. I wonder how family members feel when reading that in the newspaper. I would be interested in a better translation or information related to this phrase.

 

     They also referred to the corpse as: ศพนายแห้ว  Which seems to mean something like ‘Mr. Frustrated Corpse’ or ‘Mr. Disappointed Corpse’. Not that I can imagine a ‘Mr. Happy Corpse’. Insight or better translation for this phrase would also be appreciated. Should’ve saved this post for Halloween but it’s too far away.

[katana]

เฒ่า presumably refers to the old man who died. The titles in newspaper stories aren't often grammatically correct due to space constraints where words are omitted for brevity.

ศพนายแห้ว - What was the name of the deceased? Mr Haew?

Edited June 12, 2021 by katana

[tifino]

.and Sensationalism is the only grammatical guide a Newspaper Editor wants to really follow 

[ColeBOzbourne]

51 minutes ago, katana said:

เฒ่า presumably refers to the old man who died. The titles in newspaper stories aren't often grammatically correct due to space constraints where words are omitted for brevity.

ศพนายแห้ว - What was the name of the deceased? Mr Haew?

That would make sense, he was 65 years old. It says they don't know his name and now I have doubts about my understanding of that. I've been over it 4-5 times and sometimes can't even tell where one sentence ends and the next begins. It takes me forever to type in Thai, but here is some more context:  จากนั้นเข้าไปตรวจสอบพบศพนายแห้ว ไม่ทราบนามสกุล

Maybe it reads more along the lines of "After that they went in to investigate finding a corpse and authorities were disappointed to not know his family name."

[ColeBOzbourne]

Here's Google Translate take on จากนั้นเข้าไปตรวจสอบพบศพนายแห้ว ไม่ทราบนามสกุล: "Then went to check and found Mr. Haew's body. surname unknown"

 

I don't know why they call him Mr. Haew and then say surname unknown.

[katana]

In Thailand, if your name is eg John Doe, they often call you Mr John rather than Mr Doe ie they use your Christian name rather than surname as they do in the West. While nicknames are known, Thai surnames are often unknown between even friends in Thailand.

[Oxx]

13 hours ago, katana said:

While nicknames are known, Thai surnames are often unknown between even friends in Thailand.

 

I think that should be "Thai forenames are often unknown".  In other words, friends will know the nickname and family name, but may not know the forename.

[digbeth]

Of note is use of ใหญ่ to refer to age/maturity 

หนุ่มใหญ่ สาวใหญ่ literally big boy big girl, this would denote someone of 30-40+ often accompanied with found dead in a sentence