λιωμένο κινίνο

[Theseus]

Here is the context:-
Λιωμένο κινίνο η σάτιρα του Θεσσαλονικιού ρεμπέτη Αγάθωνα ρέει στο διαδίκτυο.. For full article, see
http://www.elzoni.gr/html/ent/405/ent.15405.asp

 

[sarant]

Κινίνο is very bitter, so it is frequently used in metaphors.
Here λιωμένο carries the metaphor further on. It is not an established collocation as far as I know.

 

[Theseus]

Thanks, Sarant: it sounds somewhat odd to call something λιωμένο bitter. Does it mean 'melted' or 'mashed'? I suspect the latter i.e.'pulped!.

 

[daeman]

...
Ground quinine, Theseus, since quinine salts are commonly sold in tablets.

---

"According to tradition, the bitter taste of anti-malarial quinine tonic led British colonials in India to mix it with gin, thus creating the iconic gin and tonic cocktail, which is still popular today."


"It is a curious fact, and one to which no-one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85 percent of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand variations on this phonetic theme.

The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian ‘chinanto/mnigs’ which is ordinary water served just above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan 'tzjin-anthony-ks’ which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the only one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that their names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.

What can be made of this fact? It exists in total isolation. As far as any theory of structural linguistics is concerned it is right off the graph, and yet it persists. Old structural linguists get very angry when young structural linguists go on about it. Young structural linguists get deeply excited about it and stay up late at night convinced that they are very close to something of profound importance, and end up becoming old structural linguists before their time, getting very angry with the young ones. Structural linguistics is a bitterly divided and unhappy discipline, and a large number of its practitioners spend too many nights drowning their problems in Ouisghian Zodahs.
[...]

'Ah, thank you,' said Ford. He and Arthur took their jynnan tonnyx. Arthur sipped his, and was surprised to discover it tasted very like a whisky and soda."

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[Theseus]

Thanks so much, 'Man.