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Verluste an Hautgewebe
Kropfleerung

Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

Mainschleife

English translation:

horseshoe bend on the River Main

Added to glossary by British Diana
Oct 17, 2011 05:57
12 yrs ago
German term

Mainschleife

German to English Other Geography word for a specific meander of the Main river
I think there are many of these river meanders, I have heard of the Saarschleife, for instance. I am looking for the English equivalent for the Volkacher Mainschleife (97332 Volkach am Main), or rather I would like to know if it is possible to call it the "Main sinuosity" in a brochure for tourists. Typical sentence: "Take a ride along the Main sinuosity with our Mainschleifen Shuttle." ( a bus laid on mainly for tourists).
Proposed translations (English)
3 +6 (the river) Main horseshoe bend
3 +2 Main loop/bend/bow
References
picture of horseshoe bend on Colorado river
Change log

Oct 18, 2011 17:46: British Diana Created KOG entry

Discussion

phillee Oct 17, 2011:
The Horseshoe is mainly associated with the one on the Colorada river. The correct generic term IMHO is 'loop' as used for a similar feature on the river Wear in Durham.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/sevenwonders/north/durham_cath_...

A bend could decribe a turn of a only a few degrees.
Ramey Rieger (X) Oct 17, 2011:
Horseshoe bend most definately
British Diana (asker) Oct 17, 2011:
re bend My reservation about "bend" is, it curvy enough? I happen to live near this Schleife and I know that it doubles back upon itself, so that the "neck" is 300 metres wide and the stretch of river between is 13 kilometres long. Would this still be a bend ?
Ramey Rieger (X) Oct 17, 2011:
Greetings Diana Horseshoe bend describes it very nicely and is a clear and common term for rivers. There is a Shanendoah Horseshoe Bend and also an Ohio Horseshoe Bend, to name the two I'm familiar with.
Karin Johnson Oct 17, 2011:
I like phoeberuth's 'horseshoe bend' the best. Your average tourist doesn't necessarily know the geological term 'meander'. Plus, it more readily descibes a series of bends that are constantly changing. Incidently, the Saarschleife is often called the Saar loop, which may be nice and short, but I find it a bit confusing. Colleagues from the site http://www.mainriver.de/index.php?content_id=52 use 'The tightest loop...'.
'Sinuosity' is definately a no-go.
philgoddard Oct 17, 2011:
Yes, sinuosity sounds weird.
Jutta Scherer Oct 17, 2011:
Why not 'bend'? Hi Diana, couldn't you simply say "along the Main river bend"? Sounds simpler and describes what it is...

Proposed translations

+6
33 mins
Selected

(the river) Main horseshoe bend

a suggestion...

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Note added at 1 Stunde (2011-10-17 07:01:18 GMT)
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just found another possibility...

Main River loop

http://www.franken-weinland.de/winzer/weingut_zur_schwane-28...
Peer comment(s):
agree Sarah Swift : I like horseshoe bend
59 mins
thank you! :-)
agree Ramey Rieger (X) : perfect, actually
59 mins
thank you! :-)
agree GET ENERGY (X) : Yes, analogous to the Saar horseshoe bend as in: http://www.mindat.org/loc-17210.html
4 hrs
agree jccantrell : I would call this an oxbow in the USA.
7 hrs
agree Ilse Schwender
8 hrs
agree Rebecca Garber : horseshoe bend or oxbow would work.
1 day 10 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you, phoeberuth and your endorsers. I think this is the best translation."
+2
1 hr

Main loop/bend/bow

OR
arch
crook


Perhaps just leave it with an explanation, as it's a proper name in this case.

Hope it helps!
Note from asker:
Thank you, Ramey. I used to say "Loop of the River Main" myself, but now I have decided that "Horseshoe Bend" is that more accurate.
Peer comment(s):
agree Horst Huber (X) : It needs to be "Main River loop", just because "Main" looks so misleading. Or "River Main loop"? Good idea, not to bring in additional metaphor.
10 hrs
Thanks Horst! Be well.
agree phillee : With Horst - ... disambiguate with "Main river loop"
10 hrs
Thank you Phillee, hope life's flowing along
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

1 hr
Reference:

picture of horseshoe bend on Colorado river

The Main has lots of meanders, but only one horseshoe bend.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 Stunden (2011-10-17 09:23:17 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sorry, didn't realize the link wouldn't work. Googling /Horseshoe bend colorado river/ will get you lots of images. Here is a link to one:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Grand_Canyon_Horse_Shoe_B...
Reference:

http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.arizonas-world.de/assets/images/Horseshoe_Bend_08.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.arizonas-world.de/h

Note from asker:
Sorry, Sarah, I can't access the picture. What do I type into the Google window?
Wow! That is a spectacular "Schleife" and it certainly bends a lot! Which answers my query about how bendy a bend is.
Something went wrong...
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