mouchoir-pouchoir
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
A shop dog in Grignan -- a town in the Drôme made famous by Madame de Sévigné. (Re today's photo: You can just see my mom's reflection in the shop window. She's wearing a bright-colored poncho. See her? And see another picture of our tech savvy chien at the end of this post).
mouchoir-pouchoir (moosh-wahr-poosh-wahr) noun, masculine
: hanky-panky
[from "mouchoir" ("handkerchief" or "hanky") & "pouchoir" (a made-up French word that rhymes with "mouchoir")]
See this word... and many more endearing terms and expressions, here.
To comment on today's term, "mouchoir-pouchoir" please use this box:
*To play the word game along with us:
1. Cover your eyes
2. Open a French dictionary to a random page. Let your finger drop to the page.
3. Discover the word beneath your fingertip.
to mind. Don't forget to add the definition and any related expressions to the
comments box.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shopping~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Learn French in a Hurry: Grasp the Basics of Français Tout De Suite
French "vine therapy" for the hands: Caudalie Hand And Nail Cream
SmartFrench: CD-rom for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced French learning
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My husband is fond of saying "Whatever" and my friends from France asked us about it. The best I could come up with was "Zut Alors". They laughed and seemed to "get it" but I am wondering if there is a close match for that "Whatever" expression. Any help out there?
Posted by: Cerelle Bolon | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 12:43 AM
I'm not playing the game properly here, but the first word that came to my mind on seeing the photograph was "chiocciola: which means "snail"and is also the word for the @ in e-mail addresses.
Posted by: Passante | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 01:06 AM
Passante's entry sent me on a quest in my online dictionaries.... I always loved that @ 'caractère'...
The French call it 'arrobas' with many spellings (arrobase, aroba, arobas etc).
Canadian French: Arrobas or a-commercial
Italian: chiocciola
Spanish: arrobas
Then on to 'ampersand' [&] which is the marvellous "esperluète" ....
What fun - Super-chouette!
Posted by: Jacqueline de Brisbane (Queensland) | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 01:54 AM
Whatever - n'importe! That is my translation of whatever.
One of my favourite words is "quotidien" - a saying from A. de St. Exupery "Le bonheur est de bien faire le travail quotidien."
Calgary, Canada
Posted by: Marilyn McLean | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 03:15 AM
A word that I heard only once but made it's mark: "tomatine". I have since heard that it was a Canadian proposal for replacing the English word "ketchup". Not sure how true that is, but it cute.
The irony is that ketchup is not really an English word, coming from the Indonesian ketjap or Chinese ketsiap (which mean "tomato sauce").
Posted by: Michael | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 09:17 AM
The Italian "chiocciola" looks very similar to the French "coccinelle" (ladybug beetle) from the Latin family of insects "Coccinellidae". "Coccinelle" is also the French name for the Volkswagon Beetle.
Posted by: Frank Chappell | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 09:20 AM
Hi Kristi, I'm in Amsterdam airport, met a darling young man who is letting me use his computer. Actually he is typing this right now. Just wanted to say thank you for everything, I love you. Mom
Posted by: JULES | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 09:23 AM
Tu dis n'importe quoi! This is a pretty close translation of "whatever"!!!!
Julie Schorr et
Les eleves de Granite Hills high school
Posted by: Julie Schorr | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 07:20 PM
Hi Kristin,
Is the dog in the store window real? My students would like to know. Merci!
Julie Schorr
El Cajon,Ca
Granite Hills high school
Posted by: Julie Schorr | Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 08:19 PM
Bonjour Madame Schorr, Salut les élèves! Yes, that is a real dog. I've included a second photo at the end of the post (the dog is looking at the camera this time).
Thank you for reading my blog in class.
Posted by: Kristin | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 07:29 AM
A Heavenly Blue Morning Glory pour Jules from Elinor in St. Louis, MO.
Posted by: Elinor White | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 01:53 PM
a stock of show-stopping fragrant stock (purple) from marin county, CA, USA
for jules.
kristin, thanks for sharing yr fam.
elizabeta
Posted by: elizabeta | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 02:34 PM
Une marguerite blanche pour Jules d'Alexandria, Virginia aux Etats-Unis! :)
Posted by: Shannon | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 04:46 PM
Une magnolia pour Jules de Mississippi!
Posted by: Jeff C. | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 05:55 PM
Along the lines of mouchoir/pouchoir, our word for a really long hot shower is pouvoir/shouvoir, or used daily, simply taking a "shouvoir"
Posted by: Phil Gibbs | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 06:58 PM
Favorite words:
Ronronner--to purr
Caramboler--to collide with
Le crepuscule--twilight
A garden of fiesta bright moss roses --lat. portulaca, fr. roses moussesuses(?) -- for Jules
Posted by: amr | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 07:27 PM
I miss my mum -- she's always in my thoughts, and I just planted "pensées" at the cemetery, so sending some along to dear Jules also, from Ontario, Canada.
Posted by: Deborah Jongsma | Friday, October 17, 2008 at 11:03 PM
my favorite french word is guimauve. it means marshmallow. i love saying it over and over. it makes me smile :)
Posted by: laura | Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 08:20 PM
A hibiscus from Florida for Jules
Posted by: Doreen Sharabati | Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 08:55 PM
bleuets for julesfrom Jeanne in St.Paul
Posted by: Jeanne COMEFORD | Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 01:32 AM
Though not the first of May, a Brin de Muguet (lily of the valley) from Sidney, OH.
Posted by: Marian Epperly | Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 12:22 AM