"Pain and Hope" as personified by Mama Braise (left) and Smokey Doo. Read about a wine farmer's struggle, in today's missive.
la gnac (nee ack) noun, familiar
pugnacity, the will to win
avoir la gnac (also spelled "gnaque", "niaque") : to be driven, "to have a fire in the belly" (thanks, "Newforest", for this updated definition).
This term "avoir la gnac" is used by a certain generation: French friends our age (Forty Somethings) will be familiar with it. But when asking my son and my daughter whether they knew the expression "avoir la niaque" they shook their teenage heads "non". Have you ever heard the term used (comments welcome, here)? It was spoken to me yesterday, over the telephone, during a chat with Aunt Marie-Françoise (who was referring to my daughter's passion for horseback riding). I had thought she meant "knack" as in "she has a knack for riding". But the term seems to have little in common with the Anglophone expression… or does it?
Audio File: listen to our son, Max, pronounce the following words: Download Gnac
la gnac: Comment expliquer son succès? Il a de la niaque!
How to explain his success? He is driven!
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
Le filet mignon de porc turned out fine — if my brother-in-law's behavior was any indication: I watched as Jacques "sauced", or mopped up, the juices from the rectangular glass casserole: there's no better sign of a recipe's réussite.. and watching my beau-frère (who was reared by the best cook in France) finish every last bite is la meilleure récompense for any cook's troubles.
Seven of us were sitting beneath the mulberry tree, leaning over the picnic table there below, enjoying the late winter sun. If you looked to the ground below us, you'd spy springtime in the dirt: the green tips of bulbs could be seen pushing up, as well as several wheelbarrowfuls of weeds, or what would amount to several wheelbarrows… just as soon as we got to them. For now, it is the vineyard's weeds that are exhausting everyone: just one small parcel in question, but what a great big headache!
More than a headache, Jean-Marc bears white nights and cold sweats, or the emotional and physical torture inherent in organic, or biologique, farming. When he woke up Friday night with what he called "les palpitations", I asked him what was the matter: je crois que c'est une crise de panique…. he guessed, as he sat frozen, legs over the edge of the bed. He'd been to see the doctor for this, and was not too concerned (heart problems having been factored out). Nevertheless, this, along with the cold sweats, left him all the more discouraged.
But the next day, with the help of his jovial crew, one which grew and grew (Jacques and Michel arrived from Avignon), they caught up with work in the vines: whereas they were only one-sixth of the way through Friday's weed-o-thon, by the end of Saturday they had pulled weeds from half of the parcel!
I watched my husband closely, and noticed his spirits were lifting: more than the advance they had won that morning in the vines, he was cheered by the non-stop "blaguing"* coming from his buddies (oh, the French words I learned this weekend… nothing I could share here!). I leave you with photos of the bubbly crew, who made up for the raunchy jokes (mostly told out of the hostesses' ear range) by being perfectly polite and helpful in the kitchen (and they even brought the finest Belgian chocolates to sweeten our mouths — lest I wash theirs out with Savon de Marseilles!!!).
***
Update!!! Jean-Marc just learned that he won a gold medal for his Mistral 2009 wine in the Paris Wine Agricultural Fair. Go Chief Grape! You deserve it! May this award help soothe all those emotional aches and pains. And many more thanks go to all who helped pick those grapes, bottle these wines, and pull so many mauvaises herbes. Thank you so very much for such needed support!
Le Coin Commentaires: Corrections, comments, and stories of your own are most welcome: click here to leave a comment or a note to Jean-Marc. Merci d'avance!
Photos:
To see all of the photos and to meet our jovial weed-o-thon crew, click here.
Meet Jean-Marc in Milwaukee this coming March 10th for a tasting of his wines or later in many other US cities
French Vocabulary
le filet mignon de porc = pork tenderloin
la réussite = success
le beau-frère = brother-in-law
la meilleure récompense = the best reward
je crois que c'est une crise de panique = I think it is a panic attack
blaguer = to joke around, to tell jokes
merci d'avance = thanks in advance
le Savon de Marseille = a famous local soap, good for washing hands — and even laundry! Buy a bar here, and help to support this French word journal 🙂
Cara Black has a new book out! MURDER IN PASSY:
The village-like neighborhood of Passy, home to many of Paris’s wealthiest residents, is the last place one would expect a murder. But when Aimée Leduc’s godfather, Morbier, a policecommissaire, asks her to check on his girlfriend at her home there, that’s exactly what Aimée finds. Xavierre, a haut bourgeois matron of Basque origin, is strangled in her garden while Aimée waits inside. Circumstantial evidence makes Morbier the prime suspect, and to vindicate him, Aimée must identify the real killer. Her investigation leads her to police corruption; the radical Basque terrorist group, ETA; and a kidnapped Spanish princess.
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I love picking up vocabulary from your blog. (Did you know that in Italian, sopping up the plate with bread is called “fare la scarpetta,” or doing the little shoe?)
Bravo Jean-Marc! Way to go! All your hard work is paying off…so proud of you.
And Kristi, I really think you should put together a little book of all those wonderful new “words & stories” you learned froom the vine workers. Possibly, “Tales from a Provence Vineyard”, n’est pas? xo Robin
Someday I hope to try Jean-Marc’s wine… Félicitations!
I’m going to open the Mistral 2008 tonight! Congratulations to Jean-Marc. All the hard work is paying off!
A gold medal for Mistral 2009!
Mille et mille bravos à Jean-Marc who couldn’t have received any better news at this difficult time. This is the best medicine to cure his “crise de panique” and re-charge his “gnac/gnacque!”
gnac is a strong bite (un coup de dent, une morsure) and has become a (fashionable?) word spread by sport journalists who gave a feminine gender (LA gnac) to a masculine noun LE gnac.
“avoir du gnac” means “avoir du mordant” (from the verb mordre = to bite)
So, “la gnac/ gnaque” is a popular word. Will it stay feminine and will it keep two genders? I don’t know. I heard it on TV last time I went to France. Is it more fashionable than “la combativité”, “l’esprit de compétition” = the will to win
It certainly implies a lot of “entrain” (= enthusiasm).
I had no idea about the origin of the word. I just found out it comes from the Occitan language (south west of France)
See for yourself:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_de_mots_et_expressions_du_Sud-Ouest
then, having the sound “gnac” bouncing in my head, I thought about “le cognac” – strong brandy produced in the Cognac region (southwest of France)- and about “l’Armagnac” produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, south west of France? Well, I don’t think there is any link.
Saying that, “brandy” is, as the French say: “DE L’EAU DE VIE” — and “vie” means life!
With all these connections bubbling in my mind, I decided to go and consult Wikipedia. I must share with you what I found out about some of the properties of the Armagnac brandy:
—> It enlivens the spirit, partaken in moderation, recalls the past to memory, renders men joyous, preserves youth and retards senility.
Byyye
PS —> this empty space on the left is not only a waste of space that also reduces concentration when reading other people’s posts, but … I’ve just discovered it is ‘a pain’ when previewing your own comments. I clicked to read “Preview” and hated to see rows of such short lines going on and on, and only being able to read a few at a time.
We know we can send a post to make any comments, so, what is the use of all those red “Reply” buttons, when we can simply include our remarks to an individual, inside our own post, and in a personal way?
Hope “Chief Blog” will do something about it.
post just sent. Is there something wrong with my laptop? with viewing? The ends of the lines (on the right) are missing, but posts above are ok.
will try again a bit later… maybe things will get sorted out.
Hi Christine, enjoyed learning the Italian equivalent. Thanks!
Robin, Teresa, Eileen – merci for the wonderful féliciations.
Newforest – Chief Blog here 🙂 Yes, I agree, this new comment system is not what I had hoped (you’re comment is hidden in the right margin! I’m off to check things out. P.S.: loving the notes you’ve added to “gnac”!
I especially like today’s photo. Their golden fur silhouetted against the dark background is quite stunning. Do tell . . . Are Smokey’s wounds a thing of the past? I will never forget that horrific tale of his attack.
Hi!
Mille et mille MERCIS to “Chief Blog” and her ‘knack’ for re-formatting our “Coin Commentaires”, removing unfriendly red buttons, and re-arranging the spacing on the left, re-concentrating our attention etc etc. The readers who didn’t see the frustrating changes that started yesterday and brought more frustrations today will not understand what I am talking about. Never mind.
My very last note might have flown away (or was deleted, as no longer relevant?). As the formatting has gone back to normal, “tout va bien maintenant” (all is well now) – Ouf!
As that lost note also mentioned the lovely photos of the joyful “équipe” (team),I want to renew my appreciation for the hard work and high spirit.
“Eric, Olivier, Jacques et Michel,
★★★★★arracheurs de mauvaises herbes,
vous êtes tout simplement
for-mi-daaaaaa-bles!”
Hi Kristin,
I can feel real sympathy for Jean-Marc having been proprietor of a small ‘S.M.E.’ business( the abbreviation exists in France – possibly as E.P.M.). I didn’t have regular panic attacks but remember one very dramatic occasion driving on the motorway towards London when I had to move across to the nearside lane quite smartly, and slow down considerably (not my usual style) while I recovered my equilibrium. I’m sure that you will look after him well and ‘the crew’ are clearly providing good medicine. Congratulations on the Gold Medal, which must be good medicine too. All was well with me and I’m sure that all will be well with Jean-Marc also, with your support.
Fascinating post by Newforest about the origin of la gnac. It seems possible that ‘knack’ may derive from ‘gnac’ although my dictionary gives the origin of knack as ‘knak’ – a sharp knock – imitative origin.
Hi Jules,
Just to say that I did reply to your post, but not until this morning.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Love your blog…In America we say…knack…i haven’t heard the word in a while..will try to use it more often..with my “talented” friends!
1.a special skill, talent, or aptitude: He had a knack for saying the right thing.
2.a clever or adroit way of doing something.
Cheers! A bientot! Jennifer aka Gigi
ps. My hubby gets panic attacks…warm regards…
Also a “bad herb”=Weed…funny!