Huge Chavez used an obscure term, when referring to his opponents beating him in a national referendum, that means "you think you want it but it turns out to be a bad thing" after losing an bid for an amendment for a constitutional amendment, and I can't remember what it was he said. I know this is super vague, but if you were paying attention to Venezuelan politics sometime between 2010-2012, you would have read that he quoted that the opposition won a [something] victory, or something. This is driving me nuts. Please help me remember what he said!
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5Without doubt Chavez was speaking in Spanish when he made this this declaration. Maybe you are thinking of "pyrrhic victory"? – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Jun 07 '17 at 21:31
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3@Cascabel - Bingo. Chavez urged calm and restraint. "To those who voted against my proposal, I thank them and congratulate them," he said. "I ask all of you to go home, know how to handle your victory," the 53-year-old president said. "You won it. I wouldn't have wanted that Pyrrhic victory." - USA Today, 12/2/07. – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 07 '17 at 21:41
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3Yeah, technically not English language, though as it happens the Spanish usage is the same. "Ustedes se la ganaron y es de ustedes, pero yo esa victoria pírrica no la hubiera querido" es.reuters.com / "You have won and that's yours, but I wouldn't have wanted that Pyrrhic victory." – Mark Beadles Jun 07 '17 at 22:03
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2@MarkBeadles Or even: “Y’all won it and it’s yours, but that Pyrrhic victory I sure wouldn’t’ve wanted, and even less in these conditions.” There's a whole bunch of emphasis there by fronting the direct object in Spanish to put the sentence in OSV instead of SVO order, just as there is in English. I’m guessing that the feminine “it” (la) there is referring to the upcoming feminine noun "victoria" as a sort of cataphor instead of anaphor. – tchrist Jun 08 '17 at 02:08
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3I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this question relates to (contemporary) history and politics rather than the English language per se. – Lawrence Jun 08 '18 at 09:00
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That seems unnecessarily rigid. I was wondering about a term (granted, it was spoken in Spanish) in English that someone said. I wasn't asking about the philosophical, political, or moral implications of said term. – Ryan James Jun 10 '18 at 11:04
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I don't know anything about Chavez or Venezuelan politics, but could you be thinking of a Pyrrhic Victory?
The phrase means a victory that comes at such great cost that it was not really worth being victorious. The phrase is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties defeating the Romans at the Battle of Heraclea in 280 BC and the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC, during the Pyrrhic War.
Colmarr
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