una mayoría sin mordiente

English translation: a docile / ineffectual / unassertive majority

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:una mayoría sin mordiente
English translation:a docile / ineffectual / unassertive majority
Entered by: Charles Davis

10:15 Jun 13, 2019
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - History / Book on the Roman Empire
Spanish term or phrase: una mayoría sin mordiente
"El soporte legal o apoyo normativo a la nueva religión, condicionando, limitando o suprimiendo los privilegios del paganismo, supuso un amparador estímulo al bloque cristiano, el cual en su supuesta mayoría numérica, se encontraba, a juicio de Boissier: indeciso y temeroso ante una minoría pagana más firme y compuesta e integrada por personajes notables evaluando Gaudemet las diversas versiones sobre la dispar situación, en el sentido de que, bien fueran aquellos una mayoría sin mordiente o una minoría numérica cualquiera que fuera la razón, los cristianos integrantes del senado nada decidían."

Am thinking it means "a majority without teeth" (ie no real power)…?
What do others think, please?
Thanks!
Comunican
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:46
a docile / ineffectual / unassertive majority
Explanation:
I think it means "without bite" rather than "without teeth", which is not quite the same thing. I don't think it's saying that they lacked power, the means of asserting themselves, but that they lacked the will to do so. The context refers to the "bloque cristiano" as "indeciso y temeroso", in contrast to the pagan minority, which was "más firme y compuesta". It's about their character rather than their situation. In principle, if they were in the majority, they had the means to prevail, but they failed to do so.

Actually I think the metaphor, "sin mordiente", refers not to biting literally with teeth but to the noun "mordiente" meaning a mordant, an acidic fixer in dyeing or tanning. They lacked "bite" in that sense. I find "sin mordiente" online applied to a boring and unadventurous performance by a rock group, a poor performance by a footballer: that sort of thing.

I've offered three possibilities along these lines; I hope that won't seem like cheating, but it's very difficult to choose and ultimately it's a matter of personal taste.
Selected response from:

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 05:46
Grading comment
Many thanks everyone - especially Charles Davis - for all your help and thoughts!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +4a docile / ineffectual / unassertive majority
Charles Davis
4 +2a majority with no teeth
Francois Boye
4a slim majority
Frank Foley


  

Answers


39 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
a docile / ineffectual / unassertive majority


Explanation:
I think it means "without bite" rather than "without teeth", which is not quite the same thing. I don't think it's saying that they lacked power, the means of asserting themselves, but that they lacked the will to do so. The context refers to the "bloque cristiano" as "indeciso y temeroso", in contrast to the pagan minority, which was "más firme y compuesta". It's about their character rather than their situation. In principle, if they were in the majority, they had the means to prevail, but they failed to do so.

Actually I think the metaphor, "sin mordiente", refers not to biting literally with teeth but to the noun "mordiente" meaning a mordant, an acidic fixer in dyeing or tanning. They lacked "bite" in that sense. I find "sin mordiente" online applied to a boring and unadventurous performance by a rock group, a poor performance by a footballer: that sort of thing.

I've offered three possibilities along these lines; I hope that won't seem like cheating, but it's very difficult to choose and ultimately it's a matter of personal taste.

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 05:46
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 312
Grading comment
Many thanks everyone - especially Charles Davis - for all your help and thoughts!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Robert Forstag
1 hr
  -> Thank you, Robert :-)

agree  Thomas Walker: Related I think to the slang term for a bribe paid to government officials along the U.S.-Mexico border region: "la mordida", the (little) bite.
12 hrs
  -> Maybe. Many thanks, Tom :-)

agree  neilmac: I fancied "toothless majority"... but 'too late' was the cry :-)
1 day 5 hrs
  -> That was my first thought too. Never mind! Thanks, anyway :-)

agree  JohnMcDove: Always reminds me the "toothless termite arrives to a bar and asks, 'Is the bar tender here?'
6 days
  -> ¡Me encanta! Gracias, John ;-)
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
a slim majority


Explanation:
Slim, or narrow, in numerical terms, taking the 2 phrases together, i.e. "bien [que] fueran aquellos una mayoría sin mordiente o una minoría numérica" : although they had either a slim majority [in the senate] or were in a small minority..."
It seems the author isn't sure they had a majority in the senate, so he's being cautious, as in "su **supuesta** mayoría numérica".
Notwithstanding the numbers, he concludes that they were a weak and timorous bunch in the Judaean People's Front. :-)


Frank Foley
Local time: 05:46
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Charles Davis: Very interesting suggestion, and true he's not sure they had a maj., but size of maj. irrelevant to ability to make decisions: 1 is enough. And I can't see how "sin mordiente" could refer to numbers. IMO idea is if they had maj. they lacked will to use it
39 mins
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
a majority with no teeth


Explanation:
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/have teeth

Francois Boye
United States
Local time: 00:46
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Adolfo Fulco
8 hrs
  -> THanks!

agree  neilmac: I was about to post "toothless majority" myself (108 results in Google search)
1 day 55 mins
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