# A Roman what? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2023, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365 "2023-10-31T13:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/1 "2023-10-31T13:35:03Z")
Reading an online article, I was pulled up short by a strange phrase. I kid you not, it took me a whole minute to figure this out: > “Gottschalk was the only composer the nineteenth century managed to invent who was at once a grassroots American and a ground-floor Roman tic.” Wait, what? Do people in Rome move spasmodically? Oh yes, come to think of it. I started shaking my curved fingers under my chin, like a voluble Italian. That’s a genuine Roman tic. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/2 "2023-10-31T13:38:02Z")
Gee. If they closed up the gap, he could be ground-floor Romantic. But that’s too much to hope for. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/3 "2023-10-31T13:39:46Z")
Yes, as they say in England: _ **“Mind the gap.”** _ ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/4 "2023-10-31T14:05:33Z")
My father made fun of my Roman tic once. _Once_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/5 "2023-10-31T14:29:13Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > My father made fun of my Roman tic once. Paul Coker once drew a cartoon of a Roman tick for Mad magazine. It had on a little crested helmet and everything. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/6 "2023-10-31T14:49:40Z")
> “Gottschalk was the only composer the nineteenth century managed to invent who was at once a grassroots American and a ground-floor Roman tic.” I’m having trouble parsing this sentence. The century invented someone? A person is a tic? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/7 "2023-10-31T20:44:06Z")
Not gonna lie, “ground-floor Roman” called to mind the image of John Keats’s ground-floor apartment on the Piazza di Spagna, at the foot of the Spanish Steps. That Keats apartment is engrained in my mind after reading _ABBA, ABBA_ by Anthony Burgess and _The Fall of Hyperion_ by Dan Simmons. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/8 "2023-10-31T20:57:10Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I’m having trouble parsing this sentence. The century invented someone? A person is a tic? “Invented” is being used here as a rough synonym for “produced,” and as alluded to above, the final sentence has a misplaced space, and should be “Romantic.” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/9 "2023-10-31T21:06:09Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > “Invented” is being used here as a rough synonym for “produced,” That part made me wonder if we were reading something that had originally been in a different language and translated (possibly by machine) into English. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/10 "2023-11-01T00:07:40Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > > [@Pleonast](#): > > > > I’m having trouble parsing this sentence. The century invented someone? A person is a tic? > > “Invented” is being used here as a rough synonym for “produced,” and as alluded to above, the final sentence has a misplaced space, and should be “Romantic.” Wow, I was apparently completely whooshed by the original post. It took it seriously. I’ll never trust you again, @Johanna. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/11 "2023-11-01T06:07:05Z")
Did you bite your thumb at us? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/12 "2023-11-01T18:59:26Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Miller](#): > > > > “Invented” is being used here as a rough synonym for “produced,” > > That part made me wonder if we were reading something that had originally been in a different language and translated (possibly by machine) into English. It’s possible, but it didn’t strike me as odd; I thought it was just a creative metaphor. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/13 "2023-11-01T19:18:25Z")
A friend posted on Facebook a list of bands that were playing at one event and it included: CHILLI WACK It took me a surprisingly long time to figure out it was referring to the popular Canadian band Chilliwack and not some weird new band called Chilli Wack. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2023, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/14 "2023-11-01T20:36:24Z")
It would have led me to expect Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas from TLC. “Oh, I see she’s gone solo.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/15 "2023-11-02T02:32:41Z")
I don’t really think of Roman tics as being on the ground floor at all. But rather jumping high to balustrades, parapets or loggia. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/16 "2023-11-02T11:22:02Z")
But with all the animated gestures that accompany conversation in Italy, how would you know which was a tic? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/17 "2023-11-02T11:24:38Z")
As an Italian, should I be insulted by this? LOL ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/18 "2023-11-02T13:49:12Z")
I’m Sicilian, so I have license to joke about Italians. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/19 "2023-11-02T14:02:02Z")
Ah! Okay, you’re good. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/20 "2023-11-02T14:04:21Z")
I grew up with my aunts and uncles doing that hand thing for real. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365.md?page=2)