Category: French (français)

A bit of a breeze

By Simon

One of the words that came up at the French conversation group this week was brise (breeze), which appears in the following expressions:

– pare-brise = windscreen / windshield
– brise matinale = early breeze
– brise insulaire = island breeze
– brise de mer = sea breeze
– brise de terre = land breeze

The French word brise and the English word breeze come possibly from the Old Spanish briza (cold northeast wind), which was used from the 1560s in West Indies and the Spanish Main to mean a “northeast trade wind”, and then a “fresh wind from the sea”. Breeze came to mean a “gentle or light wind” from the 1620s, and something easy from the 1920s in the USA.

Alternatively the English word breeze might come from is from East Frisian brisen (to blow fresh and strong), or the Saterland Frisian briese ‎(breeze) or the Dutch bries ‎(breeze).

Apparently as well as being a light, gentle wind, a breeze can be:

– Any wind blowing across a cricket match, whatever its strength.
– Any activity that is easy, not testing or difficult.
– Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace.
– An excited or ruffled state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel.

Sources: Online Etymology Dictionary, Wiktionary and Reverso

Les mots de le semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
la brise breeze awel
convenable; adéquat; apte suitable addas
la poterie pottery crochenyddiaeth; crochenwaith
sculpté; gravél ciselé carved cerfiedig; nadd
tailler; sculpter; grave; ciseler to carve cerfio; carfio; naddu
plongée diving plymio
luxuriant lush toreithiog; iraidd; ir
enflé; gonflé swollen wedi chwyddo
la cheville ankle ffêr; migwrn
le bord edge min; ymyl
le pare-choc bumper (on car) bymper; ffender
le course à travers champ cross-country (race) ras ar draws gwlad / traws gwlad
seul; solitaire lonely unig; digwmni

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
l’attaque d’apoplexie (f);
la congestion cérébral		 stroke strôc; trawiad
avoir un accident vasculaire cérébral to have a stroke cael strôc / trawiad
caresser to stroke tynnu llaw; anwesu
le trait de génie stroke of genius fflach / strôc o athrylith
le coup de chance stroke of good luck tamaid / tipyn / strôc o lwc
aller se promener to go for a stroll mynd am dro
l’atrophie (f) atrophy gwywiad; edwiniad; crebachiad
la corbeille d’arrivée;
la corbeille de courriers à traiter;
le classeur pour le courrier entrant		 in tray cawell derbyn; basged dderbyn
le courrier sortant out tray cawell allan
le plateau tray hambwrdd
le casier pigeon-hole twll colomen; cloer; colomendwll
cousin(e) au deuxième degré first cousin once removed plentyn eich cefnder/cyfnither
petit(e) cousin(e) second cousin cyfyrder (m); cyfyrderes (f)
enfant unique only child unig plentyn
le tonneau barrel (beer; wine) casgen; baril
la casque barrel (fish) casgen; baril
le baril barrel (oil) casgen; baril
l’animal empaillé;
l’animal en peluche		 stuffed animal anifail stwffiedig
le cogneur; le malabar bruiser colbiwr; paffiwr
diriger to conduct (an orchestra) arwain; tywys(u)
le chef d’orchestre conductor tywyswr; tywysydd; arweinydd
l’entrepôt warehouse warws; stordy; strorfa
la taille size maint
le pic woodpecker cnocell y coed
marcher sur la chaussée to jaywalk croesi diofal

Singluarity

By Simon

I learnt an interesting new French word today – célibataire. When I first saw it I guessed that it meant celibate, but when I checked in a dictionary I found that while it does mean celibate, it is more commonly used to mean single. So un célibataire is a single man or bachelor, and une célibataire is a single woman or spinster. A confirmed bachelor un célibataire endurci and une mère célibataire is a single / unmarried mother – the male equivalent is un père célibataire.

Célibataire comes from célibat (celibacy), from the Latin caelebs (unmarried, single), from the Proto-Indo-European *kaiwelo- ‎(alone) and *libʰs– ‎(living) [source].

Single comes from the Middle English sengle, from the Old French sengle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive of simplex (simple or literally “onefold”*, from sim- ‎(the same) and plicare ‎(to fold) [source].

*Duplex = twofold, double

Suspending disbelief

By Simon

One of the things we talked about in the French conversation group this week was suspending disbelief, which is accepter les invraisemblances in French. That is “accepting the improbabilities”. Another way to say this in French is suspension d’incrédulité.

The word invraisemblance also means unlikeliness or inverisimilitude. Related words include invraisemblable (unlikely, incredible, implausible, improbable) and invraisemblablement (implausible, unlikely).

Its antonym is vraisemblance (plausibility, verisimilitude, likelihood). It comes from vrai (true, real), plus sembler (to seem).

Expressions incorporating vraisemblance include:

– selon toute vraisemblance = in all likelihood, apparently
– essai de vraisemblance = plausibility test
– contrôle de vraisemblance = absurdity check

Sources: Reverso, Linguee and Wikipedia

Apparently the English phrase suspension of disbelief was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817 in his Biographia literaria or biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions

See: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/suspension-of-disbelief.html

Are there interesting ways to express this idea in other languages?

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
le jeu de rôle role playing chwarae rhan, chwarae rôl
accepter les invraisemblances to suspend disbelief
nom à rallonge double-barrelled surname enw dwbl (baril)
fusil à canon double double-barrelled shotgun gwn haels dau/dwy faril, dwbl baril
l’épaule shoulder ysgwydd
l’omoplate (f); la scapulaire shoulder blade (human); scapular palfais; asgwrn palfais; crafell ysgwydd
le paleron shoulder blade (animal) palfais; asgwrn palfais; crafell ysgwydd
railler; se moquer de qn/qch;
se payer la tête de qn		 to make fun of sb/sth gwneud hwyl/sbort am ben rhywun;
chwerthin am ben rhywun
(liquide) trouble cloudy (liquid) cymylog
furtif stealth lladraddaidd
interdit banned gwarharddedig

Les chuchoteuses

By Simon

Lindsay et les chuchoteuses

On Rue Staint-Paul in Vieux Montréal there’s a statue of three women having a gossip. It’s known as ‘Les chuchoteuses‘ or ‘The whisperers’. It’s also known as the “fat ladies talking statue”. It’s by Rose-Aimée Bélanger, a sculptor from Ontario, and was installed as part of a 2006 initiative to highlight some of Old Montreal’s forgotten spaces.

The word chuchoteuses [ʃyʃɔtø:z] comes from chuchoter [ʃy.ʃɔ.te] (to whisper; to rustle), which is of imitative origin. Related words include chuchoterie (whispering), chuchotis (faint whispering), chuchotement (a whisper / murmur, rustling).

I like the sound of this word, and of the words for whisper in other languages:

– Italian / Portuguese / Spanish: sussurro, from Latin susurrus ‎(a humming, whispering)
– German: Flüstern
– Dutch: fluistering
– Welsh: sibrwd

What about in other languages?

The photo is one I took while exploring Montréal with Linsday Dow of Linsday Does Languages, who features in it.

Sources: Wiktionary and Reverso

Polyglotting in Montreal

By Simon

Yesterday was the first day of the North American Polyglot Symposium in Montreal. It’s taking place at Concordia University, which has two campuses – one downtown, and one quite a way out of town. I went to the out of town one by mistake, and walked a few miles to get there from the nearest Metro stop. When I got there I couldn’t any signs of the Symposium, and after wandering around for a while, I found someone to ask and they said it was probably at the other campus.

Fortunately as I was leaving a taxi was dropping someone off, so I jumped in and headed back into town. I arrived about 10 minutes before my presentation, the first of the day, was due to start. The presentation went well with some good discussion and quite a few people have told me that they found it interesting.

There were other presentations on various language-related topics yesterday, which were all quite interesting. One was in French, the rest were in English. The one in French was by a local guy with a strong Quebecois accent, which was a bit difficult to follow, but I was getting most of it by the end.

In the evening many of us trekked up Mont Royal, which has great views from the top. On the way down it rained quite heavily and people split up and wandered off in different groups. We eventually met up at a Spanish restaurant for tapas.

I met quite a few people I know from previous polyglot events, and plenty of new people, and I had conversations in English, French, Esperanto and Scottish Gaelic, and spoke bits of Russian, Portuguese, Japanese and Mandarin.

Les mots de la semaine

By Simon
français English Cymraeg
la vapeur steam ager
la locomotive à vapeur steam engine peiriant ager, ager-beiriant
le presbytère vicarage ficerdy, persondy
le pasteur, le curé vicar ficer, ficar, person
moudre to mill malu
le jardin ouvrier allotment cyfran
animé lively bywiog
démolir to demolish (building) dinistrio; distrywio
interdire to ban gwahardd
lancer to launch lansio; gwthio
le taux de participation turnout cynulliad
le bureau de vote polling station gorsaf bleidleisio
la crue soudaine; la crue subite flash flood gorlifo yn sydyn; fflachlifo
la maison individuelle detached house tŷ ar wahân; tŷ sengl
la maison jumelée semi-detached house tŷ pâr
la maison en bande;
la maison mitoyennef		 terraced house tŷ teras; tŷ rhes
le financement funding nawdd; noddiant

Savouring sapient and savvy saphiophiles

By Simon

An interesting new word I came across recently is sapiophile [seɪpɪofaɪl/sapiofaɪl]. When I first saw it I wasn’t sure what it meant, but as soon as I looked it up it made sense. It means “someone who is (sexually) attracted to intelligence / intelligent people” [source]. It comes from the Latin sapiō and the Ancient Greek φιλέω (phileō – I love) [source].

Sapiō is a form of sapiēns, as in homo sapiens, which means wise, discreet; wise man, philosopher, man of taste. Related words include sapienter (wisely, sensibly), and sapientia (wisdom, discernment; philosophy; knowledge).

The English word sapient (wise), comes from the Old French sapient, from the Latin sapientem (nominative sapiēns), the present participle of sapere (to taste, have taste, be wise), from the Proto-Indo-European root *sep- (to taste, perceive) [source]. Alternatively it comes from the Proto-Indo-European *sh₁p-i- ‎(to notice), from the Proto-Indo-European *seh₁p- ‎(to try, to research). This is also the root of words meaning to know in quite a few languages, including: savoir (French), sapere (Italian, Sardinian), saber (Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Asturian, Occitan), and of the English words to savour and savvy (shrewd, well-informed and perceptive) [source].

A number of women on dating sites say they are a saphiophile – that’s where I stumbled on the word. A lot of women on such sites are looking for someone who is genuine, which can mean various things, including “belonging to, or proceeding from the original stock; native; hence, not counterfeit, spurious, false, or adulterated; authentic; real; natural; true; pure” [source]. Which of these meanings is meant I’m not sure.

Genuine comes from the Latin genuinus ‎(innate, native, natural), from gignere, from the Old Latin genere ‎(to beget, produce), from the Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os ‎(race), from *ǵenh₁- ‎(to produce, beget) [source].

So maybe I should mention on Match and POF that I’m seeking a savvy, single, multilingual saphiophile – try saying that a few times quickly, it’s a bit of a tongue twister.

On Match you can search for people by the language(s) they speak. So, for example, you could search for someone who speaks French, Welsh, Kazakh, Swahili, Nepalese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Esperanto, or quite a few other languages. The list of languages is a bit random and looks like users were able to enter languages at some stage, so it includes Bable (Asturian), Euskera (Basque), Chinese, Chinese Traditional, Gallero (?), Indian (?), Iranian (?), Mallorquin, Valenciano and Visayan (Cebuano).

There are currently 651 Welsh-speaking women on Match, for example, 65 Esperanto speakers, and 42 Taiwanese speakers. However, in your profile you can only choose three languages – on Plenty of Fish (POF) you can only choose one second language, and you can only search one language at a time. These sites are obviously not set up with polyglots in mind.