Fun with french.
It never ceases to amaze me how many english words have been integrated into the french language, and become, well, 'frenchified'.
This morning, while dropping off Cheeks at school, I started reading the TRES URGENT bulletin informing parents that the ubiquitous louse has once again reared its ugly head. Typical rentrée routine. Kid starts school, kid gets lice, kid gets cold.
I stopped mid-bulletin because of a word that struck me as 'foreign'.
Vous voulez faire 'RELOOKER' les cheveux.... 'relooker'........ :/
I read over it a few times to make sure I was seeing correctly. (8:30am, no glasses, no coffee). I pointed it out to Cheeks wanting her to affirm that it did, in fact say 'relooker', and she just nodded her head as if it were normal, and to avoid the embarrassment of her mother pointing and laughing at the sign, she practically ran off with her bike and dissappeared into the portals of french education.
The sad thing is that I thought about it the whole way home, anxious to 'google it' and start researching this new addition to 'la langue française'. I turned on the coffee pot, and made myself comfortable in front of the computer screen only to find definitions that did not suit this sentance. I figured it meant to 'look over' or 'to check'... All I am finding is this definition, or similar;
Plus original, "relooker" qui plus encore que "looker"
(pourtant à la terminaison bien française, sur ce radical
anglo-saxon) montre l'indépendance du mot. "Relooker", d'origine
anglo-américaine, ne correspond à aucun mot anglais ou américain,
et c'est une création purement française, qui signifie, en gros,
changer l'image d'un produit en le rajeunissant, en le dynamisant,
en tentant de le rendre plus séduisant.
Le mot est récent, pas la chose : les bas Dimanche
s'étaient relookés en devenant Dim, la Semaine à Paris en devenant
Pariscope, la Manufacture des Armes et Cycles en devenant
Manufrance. Un exemple plus récent ? La Poste ou France Télécoms.
I love french, and I love the fact that I am constantly adding new and 'branché' words to my vocabulary.
I almost want to go back later when it's calm and take a picture of it...and then maybe I'll send it to the Académie Française.
This morning, while dropping off Cheeks at school, I started reading the TRES URGENT bulletin informing parents that the ubiquitous louse has once again reared its ugly head. Typical rentrée routine. Kid starts school, kid gets lice, kid gets cold.
I stopped mid-bulletin because of a word that struck me as 'foreign'.
Vous voulez faire 'RELOOKER' les cheveux.... 'relooker'........ :/
I read over it a few times to make sure I was seeing correctly. (8:30am, no glasses, no coffee). I pointed it out to Cheeks wanting her to affirm that it did, in fact say 'relooker', and she just nodded her head as if it were normal, and to avoid the embarrassment of her mother pointing and laughing at the sign, she practically ran off with her bike and dissappeared into the portals of french education.
The sad thing is that I thought about it the whole way home, anxious to 'google it' and start researching this new addition to 'la langue française'. I turned on the coffee pot, and made myself comfortable in front of the computer screen only to find definitions that did not suit this sentance. I figured it meant to 'look over' or 'to check'... All I am finding is this definition, or similar;
Plus original, "relooker" qui plus encore que "looker"
(pourtant à la terminaison bien française, sur ce radical
anglo-saxon) montre l'indépendance du mot. "Relooker", d'origine
anglo-américaine, ne correspond à aucun mot anglais ou américain,
et c'est une création purement française, qui signifie, en gros,
changer l'image d'un produit en le rajeunissant, en le dynamisant,
en tentant de le rendre plus séduisant.
Le mot est récent, pas la chose : les bas Dimanche
s'étaient relookés en devenant Dim, la Semaine à Paris en devenant
Pariscope, la Manufacture des Armes et Cycles en devenant
Manufrance. Un exemple plus récent ? La Poste ou France Télécoms.
I love french, and I love the fact that I am constantly adding new and 'branché' words to my vocabulary.
I almost want to go back later when it's calm and take a picture of it...and then maybe I'll send it to the Académie Française.