All but

All but
 

How would you translate "all but" in the following sentence?

Rome all but invented therapeutic public baths.

If I follow the examples below, I'd go with "prácticamente".

all but casi;
she all but fainted = casi se desmayó;
the game had all but finished = prácticamente or ya casi había terminado el partido

Roma inventó, prácticamente, los baños públicos terapéuticos.

Roma prácticamente inventó los baños públicos terapéuticos.

Anyone has any other idea?

Or, what do you think about the following versions?

A todos los efectos, Roma inventó los baños públicos terapéuticos.

Casi se podría decir que Roma inventó los baños públicos terapéuticos.

I think all your ideas are best, but I would like to tentatively add the direct translation: a phrase with the words todo and sino.

Do you think a sentence can correctly be constructed (conveying all but) with those two words:thinking:

:hmm:
Con "todo" no me acaba de funcionar, pero con "nada" y "sino", aunque un poquito enrevesado, podría funcionar así:

Roma no hizo nada sino inventar los baños públicos terapéuticos.

Problem is, being and idiom "all but", the 'literal' 'word-for-word' doesn't quite cut it.

Thank you for the suggestion anyhow. :)

una traducción literal es complicada, como
Roma no hizo más que inventar los baños públicos terapéuticos.
aunque suena forzado.....

otra opción (escrita) es:
Roma "solo" inventó los baños públicos terapéuticos.

Saludos :D

Gracias, Sosia. La verdad es que me inclinaría por algo como:

No fue otra, sino Roma, la inventó los baños públicos terapéuticos.
O:
La que inventó los baños públicos terapéuticos no fue otra que Roma.

La primera que doy, es la que me convence más.
Y con eso, y un bizcocho, hasta mañana a las ocho. (Como decía un buen amigo mío.) :)

Poli can set me straight if I am wrong.

But I think that phrase means that Rome invented everything except the therapeutic public baths

No, Chileno, not the case. Random House Unabridged can set you straight. "all but" it's an idiom that means, 28. all but, almost; very nearly: These batteries are all but dead.

Furthermore, the sentence would not make any sense, the way you write it, as Rome indeed invented (or at least had in widespread use) public baths...

You can check "Asterix, the Gladiator", where 'poor' Obelix is 'debilitated' by taking a Roman bath. After sweating big time in the "Sudarium" and "Caldarium", he heards about the "Frigidarium" ('frozen' water pool), and he jumps in the pool... Due to Archimedes laws, and given Obelix volume, all the water is splashed out of the pool. Obelix goes, "Water? What water?" :rolleyes: (Although this parenthetical note may seem like a "diversion" from the main topic, I may say that Asterix comics, while being "invented fiction", in many cases are all but accurate on what they describe and what they show.) Hope this helps somewhat. :)

Correcto. :)