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I need to translate a childish insult "turbo-dweeb" (from English to Russian), and I'm a bit confused about the word "turbo".

There's a calque of "turbo" here in Russian. But if used as an insult, it sounds a bit outdated, like something said by a "cool kid" from the 90-th.

Does it have the same flavour in English, or is it neutral?

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  • Translate from what language and into what language? Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 11:08
  • @CopperKettle, from English to Russian (added to the question)
    – user27060
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 11:43
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    Turbo is no more old fashioned as hundreds of thousands (millions?) than other words in English, including related ones such as jet, engine, plane, turbine, etc. The term turbo-dweeb in English sounds cartoonish and 90ish, ie, old fashioned. To me, dweeb is the problematic word, as nerd has held up much better in usage among everyone except those who are 13 to 15 years old. In other words, dweeb sounds excessively silly and sophomoric.
    – user20792
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 12:02
  • NES, it was supposed to be silly. Thank you for the explanation!
    – user27060
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 12:15
  • 1990s "old fashioned". LOL
    – TimR
    Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 17:50

1 Answer 1

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You're right about this sounding 90's-cool-kid-ish.

"Turbo" in this context is meant as: super/accelerated/ultra/hyper.

I.e. not just a normal dweeb, but a dweeb on steroids.

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