Today's unrelated Photo du Jour: a fire hydrant in the hilltop town of Seguret.
readers, here.
fendre (fon-dr) verb
: to split; to slit, to
slash
: to cleave
[from the Latin, "findere"]
fendre la
foule = to push one's way through the crowd
se fendre = to crack
fendre
l'air = "to cut through the air" (to quickly advance)
se fendre la pêche / se
fendre la gueule = to laugh openly, noisily
The word of the day ("fendre") was selected at random — after playing today's word game… read on, in the following column…).
My mom leaves in just a few days and I'd like to spend as much
time with "Jules" as possible. Therefore, I'm leaving all the work to you
today, via a fun (and improvised…) word game:
Here are the
instructions (dictionary* not required… but helpful):
1. Randomly open
a French-English dictionary.
2. Cover your eyes.
3. Let your finger drop
to the page.
4. Uncover your eyes, discover the French word beneath your very fingertip…
5. Type the
word into the comments box.
6. Don't forget to add a definition and any
related terms, idioms, or expressions!
*Psst: Don't have a dictionary
handy? Pas de problème! Answer this question: Tell us the first French word
that comes to mind. List it, along with a definition, in the comments box. If
you don't know the definition, just make one up!
Note: Please *do not*
send words via email, but use the comments box.
~~~~New, in
Books~~~~~~~~~~
Champlain's Dream: In this sweeping, enthralling biography,
acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer brings to life the remarkable
Samuel de Champlain — soldier, spy, master mariner, explorer, cartographer,
artist, and Father of New France.
…
(Not So New): in Books
Bel Ria: the spellbinding tale of a small dog caught
up in the Second World War, and of the extraordinary life-transforming
attachments he forms with the people he encounters in the course of a
perilous passage from occupied France to besieged England.
Tune
Up Your French: Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Spoken French
igourmet's Favorites – 8 Cheese Sampler
Bonne
Maman Strawberry Preserves
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Pour moi…Pot-Au-Feu avec du vin rose!
Visit my website for a true tale of a starving student, a generous teacher and a life changing salad on a private beach in the South of France…for my gouter en Sud de la France,
click on the food and drink category. The name of the piece, An Intimate Act in the Garden of Earthly Delights.
http://annlark.typepad.com
Glad to hear that pamplemousse was the most oft-mentioned word. It was the first French word learned and the sound always makes me “sourire”
How about la lune f)- moon? Shining bright through a hazy night from my bedroom window, I love the mystery of the moon.
Thanks Kristin for an inspired post.
Open-and-point method (Je ne suis pas une tricheuse): 🙂
“grelottant, e,” = adj., shivering, shivery; “grelotter,” vi, to shiver.
Fun and interesting game!
Allons-y! Let’s go!
That’s what came to my mind first, as that is what I seem to shout quite a bit when trying to get the kids out the door to school each morning… (I try to teach my children some French here and there, even if it is when I’m yelling at them!)
Récemment, je réfléchissais au sens de (la)randonnée c-à-d; trip, circuit, ramble, run, drive (voiture), or ride (vélo) parce qu’on discuter “hiking”. Je me suis dit qu’il vient de “re” “donner” (give again), mais c’est une expression de la chasse qui vient de l’ancien verbe randoner, courir rapidement, qui vient de randon, vivacité, violence, et probablement, vient de l’allemand Rand, bord, extrémité: how’s that for a random walk around the subject?!
Les moutons – not only does it mean sheep, it is also the white foam on the sea and the fluff underneath our beds!
Since I didn’t see a reply to Val,
‘etre tout feu tout flamme’ is correct (because ‘tout’ describes the subject which you are describing with the expression, not the flame).
And Lizzy, the word you remember is dégueulasse (distasteful); I love that word too because it does sound worse in French.
And you may have caught mon égarement, discutait, not discuter. I always wondered how you could get lost (égaré) in a train station (gare); I’m a small-town boy.
un bonhomme de niege = Snowman
avoir la dalle: to be famished
Dalle also can be used I think for drunk.
It’s slang but used commonly
la climatisation – air conditioning.
This is the first word I ever learned in French and it has stuck with me. Love the way it sounds, too.
Arak: Fermented rice with sugar…I think its Sake!
The comments about poubelle remind me of the French soap-opera “Plus belle la vie.” We can’t understand enough French to know what is going on and things don’t seem to change much from year to to year, but we’ve always wondered if the name is a play on words – “Plus belle” = “Poubelle”
Soap operas tend to be ‘garbage.’!
Le pneu: tire
I like the way it sounds in that the “p” is pronounced instead of being silent.
“delices” — somewhere between delight and delicacy… my “unofficial” definition.
de connaissance: [adjective form of connaissance = knowledge]
etre entre gens de connaissance: among familiar faces
etre en pays de connaissance – to be on familiar ground [dans un domaine]; to be among familiar faces [dans un milieu]
I’m commenting on all my favorite blogs to give them notice of Blog Action Day. Tomorrow tons of people will be posting about this years ‘global cause’ to help raise awareness. This year’s theme is Poverty.
Full info & sign up is at – http://blogactionday.org/
I like the way coquelicot (poppy, la fleur) trips off the tongue. I tried to get it as my ebay password, but someone else got there first.
Enjoyed reading your words! Merci
I like “porte-bonheur” [lucky charm]
(literally ‘happiness carrier’) as in the song by La Grande Sophie; “N’oublie pas, n’oublie pas, Je suis ton porte-bonheur”.
Frimousse: C’est un mot gentil pour un visage qu’on aime bien, qu’on trouve mignon. “Cet enfant a une jolie frimousse!”
Frou-frou – slight sound made by movement of silk especially. As in the (very old) song: Frou-frou, … “par son jupon la femme, seduit, surtout, par son gentil frou-frou…” (Before la femme started wearing le pantalon!) Sorry pour le franglais.
I love to play with French words and translations…. An often used one is trop beaucoup, and in a book, hanky panky was called mouchoir pouchoir.
Good trip home Jules! A la prochaine.
Chère Allison,
Savez-vous que “Poubelle” vient d’un nom d’un Préfet de Paris, Eugène René Poubelle, qui a décrété l’utilisation d’un recipient pour faciliter le ramassage des ordures menagers.
J’aime bien le mot “Poutou” qui veut dire bisous en Toulousain.
Chaque fois, mon mari me pose de question, “Tu veux un bisous ( just a kiss) ou un baiser” ( a passionate kiss)? Et chaque fois, il reçois le même reponse.
“Tchin-Tchin” is “cheers”
bella-fille (F)persumably “bru” for a shorter version. One of my favorite people in Europe.
I chose “pifometre,” which is a fun word, maybe not in the dictionary. I learned it while staying with a French family one summer, years ago. In English is might be “sniff meter,” meaning something you know kind of by instinct, without being taught. I always liked the sound of it, and the lighthearted idea behind it.
hydroglisseur (m. noun) hydroplane
using “point and choose” with French/English dictionary
hydroglisseur (m. noun) hydroplane
using “point and choose” with French/English dictionary
hydroglisseur (m. noun) hydroplane
using “point and choose” with French/English dictionary
fourvoyer – |furvwaje| vt: to lead astray
se fourvoyer – vr: to be led astray.
Kinda like reading French-Word-A-Day comments when I should be working 😉
I wondered so much at ‘poubelle’ too the first time I heard it.. Only the french can have such a belle nom even for the trash can!
My two favs are…
barbe à papa (nf) – cotton candy (I love the imagery on that one!)
autochtone (adj/nfm) – native (Just fun to say! [o/tok/ton])
…I am also a big fan of pantoufles…
Hi:
While just in France, I learned Ralleur (the whinner) as my friend named her young boy who was not behaving up to par
Chipie – it generally means brat or annoying child, but is often used endearingly to mean something of a little rascal. I didn’t find this one in the dictionary…it’s my sobriquet! (Passed along from a very dear friend from Poitiers)
Thanks LArry for l’ombre. I heard it recently on Project Runway as a kind of material….the actual color of the material was shaded from light to dark.
jolie laide = pretty ugly
I love this phrase as it covers a concept for which there is no common English equivalent
“pompette” = tipsy, as in meme pas pompette. My wife explaining she has NOT had too much wine!!
my random word is meneur, meneuse, meaning ringleader.
with a suffix of “d’hommes”, it’s a leader of men.
never mind = n’en fait pas
used all over Morocco and France
choux = cabbage, chouchou = califlour
and chouchou is a term of endearment for a lover, child, anything beloved.
marécage – marsh/swamp. French makes a word like swamp sound good! I love that about the language.
nimportnawak !! J’adore ce mot ! 😀
“Il fait nimportnawak” = it’s all out of whack/the highest level of sillyness, when nothing makes any sense.
Gringalet: runt.
Morveux: snotty-nosed kid.
Mauviette: weakling.
Bas-bleu: female intellectual.
Guimauve: marshmallow.
N’importe quoi (ref aaron de l’encre)
une fois pour toutes: once and for all
plaisanter= to joke
tu plaisantes= you’re kidding
Really enjoy this site, and it’s good to learn new idioms, they’re hard to hear if you don’t know them.
Beverly –
According to my Oxford Hachette dictionary: The French equivalent of “Go fly a kite!” is “Va te faire voir!”.
first word was
concours = competition
favorite word
oiseau = bird
Am a little late getting to this but couldn’t resist the game. Opened my dictionary and landed on “guitare” which was too easy, so I looked at the word above it — “guise.” The expression “n’en faire qu’a sa guise” means “to do as one pleases.” Nice phrase for a Saturday afternoon.
Studying French in a Catholic School in CT, moufle was defined as a scarf. ‘un mofle por l’hiver.
Cristi noted that in Guinea they used “laissez tomber” to mean “let it be.”
I have always known the expression to mean “to abandon” – interesting dialectal difference?