Today's photo has nothing to do with le mot du jour — not unless you want it to. Click to enlarge this image (…of one of our testy tournesols, in the front yard).
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furax (fyur-aks) adjective
: livid, furious, hopping mad
synonym: furibard(e)
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A Day in a French Life… will continue on Wednesday. Meantime, please give us your favorite French word (or share your favorite French expression); click here to share it or to see the submitted words!
Merci beaucoup & à bientôt!
Kristin
PS: a slangy expression that I find amusing, and sometimes hear the French use, is "idem" [ee-dem]. It means "ditto".
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bisous is my favorite French word. I understand it is used amongst friends and means something like hugs or kindly.
I’m known for saying ‘Il s’agit de l’amour’ (it’s a matter of love) in Montreal. People then tell me that I’m making progress with the French language, so I say it a lot!
Pissenlit is one of my favorites. It always makes me chuckle to think about learning this word in French class as an adolescent. I also like the concept of metamorphosis that this flower evokes.
Actually, “idem” is directly from Latin, meaning “the same (thing).” “Ditto,” of course, is much more slang-like, in that it comes from the Italian for “said (already).”
My favorite French phrase of the moment is “j’embrasse mon chien sur la bouche!” I kiss my dog on the mouth!
I love the sound of the French word for dragonfly – libellule. And of course it also brings to mind the lovely Art Nouveau arched canopies.
Lachon-nous. It is not beautiful, but describes a love of life, if I understand it correctly.
My favourite is ce n’est pas grave – it fits so many occasions.
my favorite french word is johhny hallyday!no a word, really, but the rock star. my next favorite is alain delon.
maquillage – (Make-Up) I love saying it but I rarely wear it.
fainéant – (Lazy, Idle) I love the idea of it and strive for vacations full of it.
Has the word “shouette” been posted?
“elle a du monde au balcon”…when I was in France as a student in the 60’s, this expression referred to a well-endowed woman!!!
“Méfiez-vous des méfiants!” “Beware of mistrustful people!”
Another Latin expression used by French speakers is “illico”, meaning “tout de suite”, immediately
Have shared this with you before Kristin but now sharing it with wider community:
I love the phrase “mon violon d’Ingres” which means “my hobby or passion secondary to my main occupation at which Iam very skilled”
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=violon+d'Ingres
très fatigué is a favorite~ just because it seems that is all I am lately!
fermé la bouche is another~ since i need to be practicing this more often.
and finally L’amour. What’s not to love about the word love.
I had a feeling that furax might be slangy, so I looked it up on WordReference and it says “très familier”, so you’d only use it with close friends.
For me, a favorite word at the moment is “rouspéter”. It means to grumble, argue, complain, protest. Although I have nothing de quoi rouspéter, really.
a consultant i used to work with loved to say he had “un idee de manoeuvre” – i always got a kick out of that
i love the word poubelle, which comes from the name of a man, monsieur poubelle, who invented the garbage cans of france.
One of my favorites has always been “virgule”. So rich and velvety a word for such a practical, mundane thing (“comma”). I just love how it feels as I say it, as well as how it sounds.
Another thing, related to the above “bisous”, is the word “bises” (“kisses”) that is often written at the end of a letter. My husband and I have modified the spelling in our correspondence to “bees”.
To convey the idea of ‘horrible’, the best for me is épouvantable–especially useful for taxi drivers when describing embouteillages! Five syllables of expressiveness!!
How about “vachement”? Love using it as a superlative.
I love the word “fauteuil” for the way it sounds. The sound doesn’t match the definition (armchair, easy chair) but I have always loved how it sounds like something my grandmother would say in yiddish!
My favorite French expression is J’en ai marre. I use it souvent.
Am I correct in assuming that we will discover WHY you are “livid,furious, hopping mad” in Wednesday’s post?
P.S. I like the phrase “le ciel” to describe the “heavens.” Just the way the two words round off my tongue gives me a wonderous sense of the magnificent and grandly vast parabola that is the sky above me that directs my eye toward Heaven!
My favorite French word is parapluie. Even when its’ raining, the word makes me giggle!
My favorite freanch expression:
Allons y! Vite! Tout de suite!
Diane: correct, sort of: Jean-Marc was the hopping mad one. (I was the worried sick one. More on Wednesday…)
“L’esprit de l’escalier” because it’s something I specialise in!
Those pastries called “les pets de soeurs” because they make me giggle.
And I’m with Diane on “chouette”. Calling something cool by using the word for a female hibou is about as random as expressing one’s appreciation in English by saying something has a low temperature!
My favorite French phrase is Ce n’est pas grave. When I was living in Paris- too many years ago- it seemed to punctuate every conversation. When there is nothing left to say, my friend or I say it and laugh.
My dictionary (Cassells) lists “furibard(e)” as “furibond(e). it is a Cassells from the early ’70s but maybe there is a typo in this word-a-day posting? Anna E.,
Mine is ‘courage’! Makes me think of ‘coeur’ when I hear it in french but not so in english.
xo
l’intégrité (integrity) I love the sound of this word. And because it’s a difficult trait for some to acquire, mostly because l’intégrité reveals itself most often when no one is watching.
I’m loving all the words being posted, and also wondered what we might expect on Wednesday from Kristin on “furax.” Words I savor are those I never learned in French classes but had to ask about in France: bricolage (do-it-yourself), canicule (heatwave), and then the verb souhaiter, which my dictionary defines as “to wish for (something)” but seems to be used for so much more. It’s also such a quiet word I have to do a double-take to hear it in a sentence.
Finally, I love the tournesol (also a great word) which brings back my wanderings through the tournesols in Ste-Cecile-les-Vignes last summer. Wish I was there now.
“le ciel est si bleu”
was part of a lecon in high school french many years ago…it went something like: De tous les saisons, c’est le printemps que je prefer…car c’est alors, les plus belles mois de l’annee; le ciel est si bleu… and that is ALL I REMEMBER. I can still see Miss Rosalie Covington, our gorgeous French teacher, slim and elegant in her suits, perfectly coiffed and made up, beautiful jewelry. I often wondered how in the HELL she ended up in Newton, NC – textile- smalltown-USA. And how glad I am that she did! Alas, I did not care so much about the language then as I do now and my memorization skills are fairly nil. C’est la vie, Bebe!
Trois cheers, Madame Covington wherever you are in le grand bleu ciel above!
“On ne sait jamais”, one never knows, from Le Petit Prince, is my most used phrase. I’ve taught it to lots of people because it comes out of my mouth so often.
my favorite french expression: when living in France in early 60’s and learning French when one would ask if I could speak French, I would answer, Yes, I speak French “comme une vache espanole”. It always got a laugh. Don’t know if that expression is used anymore.
Hi Anna, there is no typo. Your dictionary simply did not include the slang / familiar word “furax” for “furieux” (‘furious’).
Nice to know Jo Metz shares my love for the sound of the word “libellule”, and everything it implies (including Summertime)
Always been amused and fascinated by fancy and funny words that make me laugh and sound as crazy as what they actually mean:
– “hurluberlu” (cranky, extravagant)
– “farfelu” (a bit mad, bizarre, extravagant)
– “zinzin” (crazy, quite bizarre, lunatic)
I (and don’t we all?) love the expression: “Liberté chérie” (Beloved / most cherished Freedom)
However, one of my favourite expressions is:
“Vivre d’amour et d’eau fraîche” = to live on love alone. It may not seem like the best translation in English, but I don’t know any better and it’s close to what it means in French)
Thanks for the gorgeous sunflower, Kristin!
“Tournesols and parasols” are 2 favourite Summer words that go “très bien ensemble”!
Another all time useful and favourite phrase is ‘tant pis!’…infinitely useful and right up there with ‘eh bein!’.
I have 2 favorite Expressions… my first is Zut Alors! (Excuse the spelling please)
and my second is any French word that has 2 meanings, (Comme Avocat, par example)
i love the word “tiens!” as an expression of surprise; also the expression “chez _____” as in chez moi, chez lui, etc. as students together in france many years ago, a group of us found ourselves using these words even when we spoke english among ourselves, e.g. “come over to my chez later, ok?”
There are so many words I enjoy speaking(e.g. beaucoup). One that hasn’t been mentioned yet, is ‘couche du soleil’ as I picture the sun settling down for a nap.
Jeane
When we asked our French prof at L’Alliance Francaise a question about why things are a certain way in French, he would often reply, “Parce que.”
I kept that in mind a lot when living in France. And I learned that understanding why is sometimes not as important as accepting.
Learned something from Polly Platt’s book Frence or Foe that I used all over France.It worked every time. “Excusez-moi de vous deranger ,mais j’ai un probleme”
I often find myself thinking- – if not saying aloud- – “Il a un grain.” C’est a dire, “He has a screw loose.”
– – Sheila Lemann
My favorite is “truc” — it translates roughly to “thingamajig” or “whatchamacallit”.
As someone struggling to make daily conversation in French, having a word to fall back on when I don’t know the word for something is invaluable!
So many times, I end up saying “non, s’il vous plait, le truc bleu”
My favorite word is pamplemousse…although I rarely eat one. There was a Kitchen store in Tampa when I was growing up by that name and I think it’s lovely.
“Plus ça change …”. Very relevant in the 21st century. But I like it because it reminds me of reading Paris Match as a schoolboy. There was a whimsical column so called. the rest of the phrase is “plus c’est la même chose.” Originally written in 1849, by Alphonse Karr.
My favorite is jusqua ce-que. I’m sure I’m not spelling it right. I believe it means “until” and I loved saying it when I learned it in high school. I always thought it sounded like the name of a perfume!
“On est comme on est.”
I like the play on words with liasons. I like how “we” and “people” are interchangeable; an existential turn of phrase.
Looking at the postings, Heidi noted J’en ai marre. A few months back, I was reading a blog on BBC UK about the phrase. The author recounted the first trip to France wondering why the French were obsessed with Johnny Marr!
Dieu le vieux! This has been my motto for a very long time.