Our friend, témoin, avocat, son's parrain, and more, in today's story. (The cute guy is Matthieu, my husband's godson).
1. avocado
2. lawyer,
barrister, counsel
The feminine of avocat is "avocate"
Do you have
a funny, language-learning (or other) story about an avocado/avocat or
lawyer/légume? Wait a minute; an avocado is a fruit… Never mind, share
your fruity, law-abiding story with us today–or share any terms and
expressions missing from today's edition… in the comments
box.
Meantime, here are some related words and expressions:
avocat
du diable = devil's advocate
avocasserie (f) = pettifoggery (in French "mauvaise chicane d'avocat")
un avocassier (une avocassière) = un mauvais avocat / a bad lawyer
un
avocaillon (m) = pettifogger, small-town lawyer
un avocatier = an avocado
pear tree
… and this verb, from my grandfather's 1928 Petit Larousse: avocasser: to obscurely exercise the lawyer profession.
AUDIO FILE: listen to the French word "avocat" and hear the
expressions, above:Download Avocat
. Download Avocat
Jean-Marc and I rolled into town last night, after 2 a.m., having
spent "une soirée gastro"* with an old friend and his old potes.* When I say
old, I'm referring to the age of a friendship and, bien sûr,* to the number
of years that one friend recently tacked on to his birth date: quarante!* Of
course forty isn't old, but we won't tell that to the birthday
"boy".
Today, meet our friend Fred Chollet and, in the process, "meet" a
slew of French vocabulary.
Fred is… Jean-Marc's cher ami
d'enfance*
He is époux* to
Corinne Chollet
a lovely woman who makes a mean chocolate cake.
Fred
has traits that most of us have to pay for: curls and long lashes.
Fred
is a part-time père Noël* and full time avocat.*
He is témoin* to my
marriage with Jean-Marc
(a marriage not done on a lark… but, partly, in a
park
after Fred got us a special lawyer
…to deal with those illegal
alien "sharks"…)
Fred is a proud père* to Clémence and Matthieu a.k.a.
"Pioupiou".*
Fred's favorite birthday gift was a giant jar of Nutella, a
gift from his girl and from his little boy.
Antoine.
Fred is beau-frère* to Gwen, that funny guy's wife, and oncle*
to Alice and Julien.
Fred's mom, Marianne, is also an avocat–and if
her eyes were any greener they'd be avocado vert.*
Fred's got an aunt
named Michelle (who rivals Tina Turner for legs si belle!).
Fred is a
faithful ami* to a former illegal alien (nommé* Kristi).
Fred has
law-abiding and not-so-law-abiding friends: like Pinpin and Astrid
(law-abiding) and Guillaume & Isilde (not-so-law-abiding mountain folk).
He also has formerly not-so-law-abiding friends, who we mentioned
earlier.
Fred is the patron* and friend of Ouahida.* You must read about
her grandfather sometime.
Voilà! Just a few things about our friend
Fred. Here's one more addition:
Joyeux Anniversaire,*
Fredo!
photo: Fred with Max, in 2005
FRENCH VOCABULARY
une soirée
(f) gastro = a gastronomic evening; un pote (m) = friend, pal; bien sûr = of
course; quarante = forty; un ami (une amie) d'enfance = childhood friend; le
parrain (m) = godfather; quelle chance! = what luck!; un époux (une épouse)
= spouse; le père Noël = Santa Claus, Father Christmas; un avocat (une
avocate) = lawyer; le témoin (m) = witness (best man); le père (m) = father;
le pioupiou (sounds like "pyou-pyou") = little soldier; le fiston (m) = son,
young man; le frèrot (m) = little brother; le beau-frère (m) =
brother-in-law; un oncle (m) = uncle; vert (verte) = green; un ami (une
amie) = friend; nommé = named; le patron (m) = boss; Ouahida = read a story
about Ouahida ; joyeux anniversaire = happy birthday
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Since I, too, am an avocado (as good an alternative name as any for a “legal eagle” and certainly better than some I have heard), I felt obliged to shout over the Atlantic a hearty “Happy Birthday” to a fellow “advocat!” And speaking of “advocats,” check out the wonderful, whimsical and always joyful art of Jovan Obican, a Cannes-born Frenchman of Yugoslavian descent who had a law degree and a passion for painting that included many a picture of the country “advokat” as he spelled it.
Correction: all of those mispelled “advocats,” which must be some kind of green feline that tastes good on salads, I now correct to read, “avocat.” Now, I’ll just crawl back into little legal hole and die of embarrassment!
Avocat…A friend of mine is a lawyer and told me a joke…
1)Il fait si froid l’hiver a Chicago qu’il est frequent de recontrer un Avocat qui a les mains dans ses propres poches!
Joyeux anniversaire a Fred de Fred! Jean-Marc, you are hugely blessed to have such a un ami d’enfance — a loyal, talented, and faithful friend.
I have two such friends dating back to the first days of our freshmen year in high school over 67 years ago. JC,I hope your friendship with Fred lasts longer than that.
After clicking in to read about Ouahida — lucky me not to have been born in Tunisia after her grandfather switched from cutting down wheat to clipping foreskins!
My husband Jim and I are both American avocats. Years ago, when Jim was relatively new to the French language, we were touring Brittany. Being young and enthusiastic lawyers, we made a point of looking at courthouses wherever we went and the City of Nantes was no exception.
The menu at an enticing little bistro near the courthouse caught Jim’s attention, and he became quite excited about eating there. “Let’s eat here,” he said. “A lot of lawyers must eat here; they even have a salad named after them — salade d’avocat!” He was not kidding.
I set him straight with my slightly larger French vocabulary, but since that time, the confusion of lawyer and avocado has become a running joke in our family. To this day, his favorite Christmas stocking present is “lawyer’s oil soap”, for example.
And of course “advocat,” a misspelling in French, is also a slight misspelling of the related English “advocate” (lawyer).
Mme. Espinasse, you forgot one: Fred is hot! I laughed out loud at the parenthetical caption about the cute guy in the photo, thinking, “Godson? There’s a godson in the picture?” Sorry Matthieu, you are adorable, but your papa is chaud!
Happiest holidays to you and yours Kristin. Thanks for the day-brightening, sometimes poignant, often goofy French “fixes” every week. F-W-A-D is delightful.
A while ago I was visiting my cousin in Paris, where she works as an attorney on tax law issues for the OECD. We went to a nice restaurant in the 7th someplace, and on the menu was an entree that included “avocat hache” (accent aigu on the final e). I asked her if seeing that didn’t make her a little nervous. She responded that, being an “avocate,” she wasn’t too worried on her own behalf, but might be concerned that it could turn out to be one of her male colleagues.
In a local “restaurant” in the little town of Tourette sur Loup the menu translated the salad of laitue, tomate, concombre, avocat, etc. as: lettuce, tomato, cucumber and lawyers!
I was buying some little garlic graters in L’Isle Sur La Sorgue and they came with little pieces of paper with suggestions for use…garlic,ginger, chocolate, strawberries, etc. and for the “avocat” or avocado they had translated into English, lawyers. It sure tickled me to think of grated lawyers in a salad or anywhere else.
So what do you call guacamole in french?
Being a student of words, this is why I LOVE the French language……..Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee!