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Another nice example is the name of Obelix's little dog. In French it's Idéfix, a play on "idée fixe". In English it's Dogmatix, a play on "dogmatic" (preservin

Another nice example is the name of Obelix's little dog. In French it's Idéfix, a play on "idée fixe". In English it's Dogmatix, a play on "dogmatic" (preserving the French joke) and, obviously, "dog".

sys_64738 8y ago
Chief Vitalstatistix has a wife called Influenza.
- mkl 8y ago
  Vitalstatistix's wife is Impedimenta in English. There is an Influenza though. A fragment from Wikipedia: "Orthopaedix [...] and his family move to the village after buying the deeds from Tremensdelirius [...]. His wife Angina, after a major altercation with Impedimenta, pressures him into challenging Vitalstatistix for leadership. In the film Asterix and the Vikings his daughter Influenza [...]" [1]. The names are fantastic: Asterix the star of the series, Obelix who makes obelisks, Getafix the druid, Unhygienix the fishmonger (his wife is Bacteria), Fulliautomatix the blacksmith, Geriatrix the old guy, Cacofonix the bard, are main characters. Minor characters include Romans Crismus Bonus, Magnumopus and Gluteus Maximus, secret agent Doubleosix, Egyptians Artifis (who schemes) and Edifis (an architect), Phoenician merchant Ekonomikrisis, and on and on. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_characters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_characters
  - sys_64738 8y ago
    And Sean Connery is Doubleosix's doppelganger! Who'd have thunked?
    - maxnoe 8y ago
      In German, it is Majestix for the chief and Gutemine for his wife. Gutemine is a play on German saying "Gute Miene zu Bösem Spiel", meaning keeping a happy face in bad circumstances.
      - sys_64738 8y ago
        This is what I loved about the translations to English from the original French. It wasn't just a direct translation but they used the converted language humor injected into the narrative.
  - zoroasterix 8y ago
    The druid is Miraculix in German. Miracoli is a brand of instant soups, noodles and sauce. Surely that's an allusion to the magic potion soup. Maggifix would have been a bit too ... I don't know, too much on the nose. The name is related to miracle, italian miracolo. Now, -lo may appear like a diminutive, but ... well, I was looking for something that would relate colo- to the pot (correctly cauldron ... et voila) and found that colon kinda figures - but only after reading that Obelix might derive from obelus which is either a division sign which would be on par with asterisk as multiplication sign, or also a totem mark as used in footnotes. An obelisk may be a tomb stone, or could mark an areal division of sides. So, there's another parallel, with obelix as the side character. The greek root obelos (staff, rod; dividing line) is probably related to belos - weapon, dart, artillery; quickly moving - so obelix would be the damage dealer, as deal, part, share, divide are somewhat related. Obolus is from obeli, a small share of nails used for currency, so it all kind of checks out. But in my humble opinion, he's become the main character, the face (Greek ops - eye, face, on the nose, blunt) of the series. Latin ops even means power, force and derives opulent. But in the sense eye, obelix watches over asterix.

sys_64738 8y ago

Chief Vitalstatistix has a wife called Influenza.

mkl 8y ago
Vitalstatistix's wife is Impedimenta in English. There is an Influenza though. A fragment from Wikipedia: "Orthopaedix [...] and his family move to the village after buying the deeds from Tremensdelirius [...]. His wife Angina, after a major altercation with Impedimenta, pressures him into challenging Vitalstatistix for leadership. In the film Asterix and the Vikings his daughter Influenza [...]" [1]. The names are fantastic: Asterix the star of the series, Obelix who makes obelisks, Getafix the druid, Unhygienix the fishmonger (his wife is Bacteria), Fulliautomatix the blacksmith, Geriatrix the old guy, Cacofonix the bard, are main characters. Minor characters include Romans Crismus Bonus, Magnumopus and Gluteus Maximus, secret agent Doubleosix, Egyptians Artifis (who schemes) and Edifis (an architect), Phoenician merchant Ekonomikrisis, and on and on. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_characters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_characters
- sys_64738 8y ago
  And Sean Connery is Doubleosix's doppelganger! Who'd have thunked?
  - maxnoe 8y ago
    In German, it is Majestix for the chief and Gutemine for his wife. Gutemine is a play on German saying "Gute Miene zu Bösem Spiel", meaning keeping a happy face in bad circumstances.
    - sys_64738 8y ago
      This is what I loved about the translations to English from the original French. It wasn't just a direct translation but they used the converted language humor injected into the narrative.
- zoroasterix 8y ago
  The druid is Miraculix in German. Miracoli is a brand of instant soups, noodles and sauce. Surely that's an allusion to the magic potion soup. Maggifix would have been a bit too ... I don't know, too much on the nose. The name is related to miracle, italian miracolo. Now, -lo may appear like a diminutive, but ... well, I was looking for something that would relate colo- to the pot (correctly cauldron ... et voila) and found that colon kinda figures - but only after reading that Obelix might derive from obelus which is either a division sign which would be on par with asterisk as multiplication sign, or also a totem mark as used in footnotes. An obelisk may be a tomb stone, or could mark an areal division of sides. So, there's another parallel, with obelix as the side character. The greek root obelos (staff, rod; dividing line) is probably related to belos - weapon, dart, artillery; quickly moving - so obelix would be the damage dealer, as deal, part, share, divide are somewhat related. Obolus is from obeli, a small share of nails used for currency, so it all kind of checks out. But in my humble opinion, he's become the main character, the face (Greek ops - eye, face, on the nose, blunt) of the series. Latin ops even means power, force and derives opulent. But in the sense eye, obelix watches over asterix.