TRADUguide - Your Guide to Translators and Translation Agencies

153 months ago

Barbara Cochran (a guest user) asked this question:

This question has already been answered and rated. Therefore, no new answers can be given.

153 months ago

   wrote:

cliques

My comment:

It's true that "insegna" is a coat of arms, standard, banner, insignia, etc., but I don't think it has that literal meaning here. The meaning, from the context, seems to be "a group of people belonging to the same circle".

The asker rated this answer best

153 months ago

Josephine Cassar   wrote:

between the two ends of the social scale

My comment:

i.e. the rivalry between the two(ends of the social scale) was always very much in evidence

153 months ago

Josephine Cassar   wrote:

between the two ends of the social scale

My comment:

i.e. the rivalry between the two(ends of the social scale) was always very much in evidence

153 months ago

Claude Le Frapper   wrote:

mark of social distinction

My comment:

or social distinctive mark, or simply social distinction

153 months ago

Claude Le Frapper   wrote:

mark of social distinction

My comment:

or social distinctive mark, or simply social distinction

153 months ago

Robert Tucker   wrote:

family coats of arms

My comment:

The two families have their own boxes at the theatre/opera displaying their coats of arms?

Following the Civil War, New Yorkers were desperate to compete with European capitals in terms of taste and cultivation. Opera was one means of showing that Americans were not backward bumpkins. The brick structure had a somewhat barn-like appearance that did not dissuade Manhattan’s wealthiest and oldest families from hoarding their boxes and passing them down to family members.
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/lost-1883-metropolitan-opera-house.html

Comments by other colleagues on this answer:

153 months ago

   wrote:

The writer is actually referring to two social circles, a chess player's group and a hunting group, who are sitting across from one another, in boxes, during a theatrical production.

153 months ago

Robert Tucker   wrote:

So their banners or standards hung over the front of their boxes, perhaps? http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2007/aprile/15/esclusivo_Circolo_della_Caccia_tempo_co_10_070415042.shtml

153 months ago

Robert Tucker   wrote:

Please give full context before we post our answers, even if I had understood that social contexts were different; insegne means coat of arms, but sociali, no

153 months ago

Robert Tucker   wrote:

Mmm, perhaps purely figuratively here

153 months ago

Robert Tucker   wrote:

But these two-one a chess player's group and the other, a hunting group-cannot and would not have coat of arms; in reality I was not referring to you about context but there is nowhere to put it, but still, coat-of-arms is confusing as the two groups are on a par, not one higher than the other though one might have pretended to be better

153 months ago

Robert Tucker   wrote:

Well, they are now gentlemen's clubs or the equivalent thereof and I would think have designs for letterheads at least. The meaning of "insegna" is not limited to "coat of arms"; there's quite a few alternatives here: http://www.grandidizionari.it/Dizionario_Italiano/parola/I/insegna.aspx?query=insegna Quite possibly the meaning here is more the "norma di vita, di condotta" definition; there's rivalry between the two different ideologies of the two clubs. Perhaps it's just figurative here; perhaps it's figurative and actual; perhaps it's left a little for the reader to imagine.

153 months ago

Robert Tucker   wrote:

Please give full context before we post our answers, even if I had understood that social contexts were different; insegne means coat of arms, but sociali, no

153 months ago

Robert Tucker   wrote:

But these two-one a chess player's group and the other, a hunting group-cannot and would not have coat of arms; in reality I was not referring to you about context but there is nowhere to put it, but still, coat-of-arms is confusing as the two groups are on a par, not one higher than the other though one might have pretended to be better