FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

I am usually a bit nervous before ordering my meal here in Paris, but that night I was all set, Je voudrais . . .
So when the waiter approached I said, very assuredly, "Je suis un polet roti" - without batting any eye, he turned to my husband and said, in perfect English, "And what would like sir?" I am now known by my husband as
"The hot chick from the US".

My mother's gynecologist is named Dr. Papp. That one always cracks me up!

In the same vein (no pun intended!) as the last comment--my grandmother was in the hospital being treated by a Dr.Doctor. C'est vrai!

Hi!

Here is a selection of French "noms de famille" (surnames) that came from "métier" (trade, craft, profession).

-> boulanger (baker). BOULANGER
In the Middle Ages, the “boulanger” was the "fournier”. In those days, the “fournier” used to bake bread for the villagers, in a communal oven (“four”). FOURNIER, FOURNEYRON, FOURNET. ***Thank you Kristin for the lovely photo!

-> boucher (butcher). BOUCHER, BOUCHIER, BOUCHIEZ
-> potier (potter). POTIER, POTTIER, POUTHIER
-> barbier (barber). BARBIER, LEBARBIER
-> chapelier (hatter). CHAPELIER, CAPELIER, CAPLIER

-> marchand (trader, shopkeeper, stallholder). MARCHAND, LEMARCHAND
-> forestier, garde-forestier (forester). FORESTIER, FORESTIEZ, LEFORESTIER
-> charpentier (carpenter). CHARPENTIER. In the Middle Ages, the “charpentier” was “le chapuis”. CHAPUIS, CHAPUZET

-> tisserand, tisseur (weaver). TISSERAND, TISSERANT, TEYSSANDIER, TEYSSIER, TEISSIER, TISSIER, TISSEUR, TISSOT
-> cordonnier (cobbler, and used to be a shoemaker). CORDONNIER.
-> meunier (miller). MEUNIER, MEUGNIER, MOUNIER
-> clerc (clerk, cleric, scholar). LECLERC, LECLERCQ, DECLERCQ.

-> berger (shepherd). BERGER, BERGERET, BERGERAT.
-> chabrier (goat keeper in the Auvergne region). CHABRIER.
-> bouvier (oxherd). BOUVIER, LE BOUVIER, BOUYER, LEBOYER
-> le forgeron (blacksmith). FORGERON.
In the Middle Ages, the “forgeron” was le “fèvre” (latin faber). The surname LEFÈVRE is very common in France. Also: LEFÈBVRE, LEFÈBURE, FABER, FAVRE, FABRE, FABREAU, ...

I love James' story... so typical!... dear Monsieur Loiseau! I think such 'formalities' in France started to lose their grips in the last 3 decades of the XXth century, which doesn't mean they have completely disappeared.
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“se tromper”, reflexive verb. Other examples:

-> se tromper sur les intentions de quelqu'un = to misunderstand somebody's intentions.
-> se tromper sur quelqu'un = to be wrong about somebody.
-> Il n'y a pas à s'y tromper = There is no mistake about it.
-> Qu'on ne s'y trompe pas! = Make no mistake about it!

-> Oh la la! Je me suis trompé sur toute la ligne! =
Oh dear! I am completely wrong!

When I was a kid, I went to a dentist named Dr. Hollar. (No kidding.)

Our vet hired an assistant named Dr. Lamb.

My vet was called Dr. Barkan.

That's a funny story.
When I first moved to France 17 years ago, my future mother-in-law told me I could tutoie her, beings that I barely spoke French. My fiancé and I moved to Paris and I signed up for intensive French language lessons. With several months of these intensive French classes under the belt, my fiancé et I came back to Provence to visit his mother. Proud of my new language skills, I used the vous with my mother-in-law when speaking with her.
She acted strangely distant from me on this visit.
When we got back to Paris, my phone rang and my sister-in-law was on the line to ask me why I was mad at my mother-in-law. I had no idea what she was talking about. My sil pointed out that I had reverted back to vous-voie-ing my mil after almost a year of tu_toie-ing, which apparently just isn't done unless you are angry with someone. I just wanted to show my mother-in-law some respect. All of my friends in France vous'ed their mil out of respect, I just wanted to do the same.
Needless to say, we are back to the tu-toie after a few laughs and explanations.

In New Carlisle, IN, there used to be a business called Amen Funeral Home. And not too far from there, many years ago a school was named for someone whose last name was Fail. Fail School. That surely is starting out on the wrong foot.

There are lots of stories about Americans who go to France and say (usually over a meal) that they shy away from "préservatifs."

For many years, my husband's dentist was Dr. Friesen.

Unrelated story: When I was a bride in Quebec, using my school French and learning the local patois, my brother in law coached me in the following exchange while we were all dancing at a vielle:
Him: Comment va ton francais, Dorothe?"
Me: Oh je parle francais comme une botte sauvage!"
Translation: A torn boot.

When we returned to BC six years later, I often mentioned "le grand menage", and my unilingual mother called it " Le grand fromage".
Dorothy

-many years ago while ice skating with my then 4 year old daughter I fell and shattered my wrist. After two weeks of agony the Dr. I'd been seeing said I needed an Orthopedic Surgeon- pins would be needed to hold my wrist bones together. So onto the list of Orthopedic surgeons in my insurance plan I went. Soon I came to the name Dr. Butcher. I made appointment straight away. How bad could he be right. "The man must have a great sense of humor", I thought. He did. My wrist is nearly as good as new.

John - "chiotte" is a feminine word for dog. Like in English, in the circles of dog breeders, it's usage is common. But it takes on a different tone and meaning when used in every day conversaation.

(Attention:très vulgaire!) When I moved to Paris as a very young woman, not speaking french yet, I told the bank manager very seriously "Je voudrais ouvrir un compte", unfortunately I mispronounced "compte" like "con". You should have seen his large eyeballs. Be assured that I always got a very weird look every time I went to the bank after that. And it took me many months to figure it out! Deathly embarassing even 20 years later! lol = mdr

My little comment is a bit different. While in a brocante in France, I inquired about the origin of a faience plate. I was told, "St. Clement." Due to my ignorance of this faiencerie, what I heard was "Cinq le mont" and what I understood was "five the mount"

Last year on Christmas Eve, we were in Goult to see the illumination of the decorated windows and sing traditional carols. As we followed the singers, who were dressed in traditional Provencal costumes, my traveling companion decided to join in the singing of Jingle Bells. In her strong, confident voice, she sang the words she thought she had heard, "Vive la France, vive la France, vive la pomme de terre!"

My son's Drama teacher is called Mrs Ham.

my friend Michael makes lists of interesting names. His last one included these

Aptronyms
Stuart C. Law, attorney
William W. Headline, journalist
Herb Score, baseball player