Czech language readily borrows, steals, modifies, and combines words from all around the world to create new words for itself. Slibotechna is one of those. It probably was created sometime between 1900 and 1980, and it has remained in the vocabulary ever since.
How can I be so sure about the timeline? Because the suffix “techna” is a derivative of the word “technologie”. And it was used since the start of the 20th century as a suffix for naming companies, where the prefix hinted somewhat at what the company makes. Like “Elektrotechna” (manufacturer of radios and similar) or “Mototechna” (manufacturer of cars and motorcycles). It was especially used in the 50s for naming newly established state monopolies.
And during that time, some smartass added the prefix “slibo” to this widely used suffix. “slibo” is a derivative of the word “slib”, which means “promise”. Thus, a new word was created for someone who constantly overpromises and underdelivers, or, even worse, just promises and never delivers.
Does English have a similar word? I think there is a need for one. I was reminded of the Czech one recently with Trump’s third promise of thousands-of-dollars cheques for US citizens.
We call it “vaporware”, but I feel sure multiple nuances of meaning differ between the two terms.
I expect it will eventually be Trumptechna worldwide.
Would that make Trump a “slibopolitik”?
@rsmith, slibotechna covers politicians already. But the portmanteau you created would be technically correct, although it does not roll off the tongue.
I guess one could use the suffix o-matic for this. So I suggest promise-o-matic as a translation.
@Stevko, I like that as an English translation. Perhaps it could even be abbreviated a bit further to “promisomat”, making it analogous to the already widely used portmanteau “laundromat”.
I am not an English native speaker, but I do like the ring of it.
I’ve been wracking my brain as I’m sure there already is a word, but so far it hasn’t surfaced. I’ve a feeling it may be based on someone notorious for this, but maybe from a play rather than a real person? I’ll keep trying!