Warning

[arpad.livejournal.com]

.
Never ever translate Power button as Кнопка силы.

Comments

[hillwalker.livejournal.com]

Like the multiple meanings for "Turn on" in English. :)

What would be a good translation? Perhaps the equivalent of "On/Off".

[bandelero.livejournal.com]

well, "to turn smth on" is an idiomatic expression ;) in Russian the equivalent is pretty straightforward: to turn something on is "включить" while to turn something off would be "выключить". Theere is another meaning of the verb выключить, which is to knock somebody down (directly applies to boxing).

As for turning somebody on, you gotta get medical here because Russian has no idiomatic translation in this case ;) The language is flexible enough to let you make up your own slang if you know what you're doing!

off\knock down

[sonick-rnd.livejournal.com]

Sorry for bad English...
Verb "выключить" can't be used for "knock smbdy down", better use "вырубить" it's more rude (I mean better for boxing therm) and have another meaning "cut out" (like piece of wood with axe). Also it can be used for "blackout", "abnormal shutdown" and for "swoon".
"Выключить" can be used only for electric\mechanical devices.

Re: off\knock down

[igorlord.livejournal.com]

When I grew up, "выключить" has been used extensively to mean "render someone unconscious", while "вырубить" is a rude way to mean the same thing.

These words actually comes from Russian words for electrical circuit elements. :)
A "power switch" is "выключатель" since to turn something (electrical) off is "выключить".
A "Main power switch" is called "рубильник" (root "рубить" means to "to hack with an axe"), probably because of the great and indiscriminate power of the device -- it turns off everything without much discrimination.

The colloquial expressions for "render someone unconscious" come from the idea of a person being like an electrical device. "выключить" is a more "polite" (also still colloquial) usage. "вырубить" is a more rude usage (probably since it is associated with a less "sofisticated" and more "brute force" tool).

Re: off\knock down

[aravir.livejournal.com]

Not "выключить" but "отключить" means "render someone unconscious":)

Re: off\knock down

[igorlord.livejournal.com]

I think both can be used, but your version is more common, indeed.

[igorlord.livejournal.com]

Actually, you are not correct. There is an exact translation of "turn on" into Russian.
It is "завести". Normally, "завести" is translated as "crank up" (as in "crank up the car"). But in the idiomatic usage "завести" is to "turn on someone (sexually)". (Note that "завести" is can also be translated as "aggravate" as in "aggravate someone to the point of a phsycotic/destructive actions".