I'm all for it. English needs more words for being tired out. This heavy leaning on not admitting it because of protestant work ethic is getting me down.[g]
I've long been partial to the word dight. I learned it as meaning something in the direction of courtin' and sparkin' but a quick look-see a moment ago tells me that the meaning that I remember so fondly is, perhaps, a bit mild. It's attributed to Chaucer in the meaning of "to have sexual intercourse with." Hmm...
The word that I've most bandied about, lobbying for its inclusion into English is dépanneur. It comes from Québécois French. Dépanneur means a real corner store. The kind that has a little bit of everything, that is open late, that is more than just convenient. The kind that is being driven out of our lives by those pale imitations that one finds attached to filling stations.
Dépanneur is more than an ordinary word, it has flavour and history and punnishness. The word comes from the standard French word panne, which means to be stopped (due to nonfunction, as in a piece of machinery). Those of you who have played Mille Bornes (a French game that uses special cards that has been around much longer than Magic: The Gathering) will be familiar with “panne d’essense,” which means to be stopped because out of gas for a car. By extension, in common usage, panne also means to be out of something.
These two meanings converge in dépanneur. One can refer to either the store or the store’s clerk: the store (or the person) who helps me out when I’m stopped in the middle of a recipe because I’m out of something. Where do I go when my batteries conk out late at night? The dépanneur!
In Québec, dépanneur has pushed its boundaries. It can also mean a person who has problem-solving ability, one who performs in a can-do manner. I don’t think that this second meaning is as readily transferable to English.
I like this word better than convenience store or corner store (or the anglo tuck shop which, while it has a certain old-style charm is a bit yech) both for simplicity and because it speaks. It describes what it means
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Date: 2004-11-07 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 07:43 pm (UTC)If English isn't using it any more, I say we abscond with it.
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Date: 2004-11-07 08:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 11:34 pm (UTC)This useless piece of knowledge sponsored by the letters å, ä, and ö.
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Date: 2004-11-08 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-08 09:57 am (UTC)I've long been partial to the word dight. I learned it as meaning something in the direction of courtin' and sparkin' but a quick look-see a moment ago tells me that the meaning that I remember so fondly is, perhaps, a bit mild. It's attributed to Chaucer in the meaning of "to have sexual intercourse with." Hmm...
The word that I've most bandied about, lobbying for its inclusion into English is dépanneur. It comes from Québécois French. Dépanneur means a real corner store. The kind that has a little bit of everything, that is open late, that is more than just convenient. The kind that is being driven out of our lives by those pale imitations that one finds attached to filling stations.
Dépanneur is more than an ordinary word, it has flavour and history and punnishness. The word comes from the standard French word panne, which means to be stopped (due to nonfunction, as in a piece of machinery). Those of you who have played Mille Bornes (a French game that uses special cards that has been around much longer than Magic: The Gathering) will be familiar with “panne d’essense,” which means to be stopped because out of gas for a car. By extension, in common usage, panne also means to be out of something.
These two meanings converge in dépanneur. One can refer to either the store or the store’s clerk: the store (or the person) who helps me out when I’m stopped in the middle of a recipe because I’m out of something. Where do I go when my batteries conk out late at night? The dépanneur!
In Québec, dépanneur has pushed its boundaries. It can also mean a person who has problem-solving ability, one who performs in a can-do manner. I don’t think that this second meaning is as readily transferable to English.
I like this word better than convenience store or corner store (or the anglo tuck shop which, while it has a certain old-style charm is a bit yech) both for simplicity and because it speaks. It describes what it means
Re: bringing words back...
Date: 2004-11-17 01:16 pm (UTC)I have no idea why I don't have you on my friends list before this. This is Torin from way back when...