Thread: Reading and translating books; need help

Here is a passage from the crime story The Clue Of The Red Wig by J. D. Carr:

"Would I like it?" she breathed. "Hot ziggety damn!"

What does the highlighted word mean and how the whole exclamation can be translated into Russian? There isn't such word in any dictionary I've looked so far.
I can only think of "Черт возьми!" or "Черт побери!"
Any contribution much appreciated.

P.S. If it's important that woman in the story is French. I think the strange word is English not French though.

It means absolutely nothing; it simply a silly, made-up adjective. Typically it really does nothing -- it's just a word thrown in for a bit of color or maybe just a bit of emphasis. MAYBE an author/character would repeatedly use it just as a sort of "trademark" that you would remember them by. Really, it probably has the same meaning as if I were to say "Я видел зиггиттую красивую девушку!" I think your translations would suffice.

A strange phrase for a French woman to say... It is more of American slang.

The author was an American, who spent time in the UK, so that's not that surprising. You're welcome to go hold a seance at his grave and ask him why, though!

Barmaley, thanks. I thought as much but wanted to make sure.

A strange phrase for a French woman to say... It is more of American slang.

In fact I wasn't quite accurate when I said the woman was French. She is allegedly half-French and half-English But she speaks English not well at all so maybe it's a wrong info about her origins. You see it's not definite in the story.

You're welcome to go hold a seance at his grave and ask him why, though!

What a very fortunate coincidence! Just today I've seen a documentary film about sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes and there were tries to make contact with the dead in the film. So now I know how it's called in English (seance) because you stimulated me to look up the unknown word in the dictionary.

By the way in Russian seance = спиритический сеанс.

It's diggity:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& ... tnG=Search

Originally Posted by chaika

It's diggity:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& ... tnG=Search

Not having read the book, I have no idea. Same difference, though. Just a meaningless, aurally-pleasant modifier.

Another passage from the same story:

"The poor lady who has so unfortunately kicked the ghost."

to kick the ghost = to die , am I right? (They are talking about a killed woman)

That sounds right, but only by the context -- I've never heard this expression before (I'm in the US though -- if she's a "french-UKer" maybe there's a regional usage). I HAVE heard:
a)kick the bucket
b)gave up the ghost