What is a wandering minstrel-cum-clown? Does Russia still have them?

ilex@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 21 points –
10

I believe it means minstrels who became clowns.

I've heard this before from a Russian speaker. I don't understand how it got written this way. It drives me a little nuts trying to imagine how it became written as such. A translation that got fucked repeatedly until finally it was only bots reprinting it?

Russian speaker here, seems like a typo or translation error. Can't think of why this would happen, but I don't think cum plays any part in this.

Interesting etymology though, the Italian scaramuccia (joker/jester/clown) seems pretty plausible.

"cum" is Latin for "with" and is sometimes used in English to show that something is two things at once, so "minstrel-cum-clown" would be someone who is both a minstrel and a clown

Huh, that seems plausible, but it's usually between other Latin words. I can't think of any where "cum" would be interjected between English words. Are there other examples, is this a thing?

I wouldn't consider it odd to see it between two English words. 'Seminar-cum-workshop' is one example I found with plenty of search results.
It's also used (with the same meaning) in English place names e.g. the Beegees are from Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Prominent historical title for Putin.

I'm sorry. What is a WHAT?

Dude. Just look at the referenced image. It is an image of text.