| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| le macadam (goudronné) | tarmac | tarmac | makadam |
| goudronner | to tarmac/asphalt | tarmacio; coltario | koultronañ |
| les bons et les méchants | goodies and baddies | dynion da a dynion drwg | an tud vat hag an tud fall |
| un sachet de petits cadeaux | a little bag of goodies | bag bach o dda-da | |
| [petit sac pour emporter les restes après un repas au restaurant] | doggie/doggy bag | bag sborion | |
| clair comme de l’encre | as clear as mud | annealladwy; fel tatws llaeth | |
| clair comme le cristal / comme de l’eau de roche | as clear as day/crystal | mor olau a’r dydd; clir fel grisial | |
| le champ de foire | fairground | cae ffair | marc’hallac’h |
| le typhon; l’ouragan | typhoon | gyrwynt; corwynt; teiffŵn | tifon |
| la monnaie; la devise | currency | arian (treigl/cyfredol) | moneiz; teulenn |
| les devises étrangères | foreign currency | arian tramor | moneiz estren (?) |
Category: French (français)
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| le linge | laundry (clothes) | dillad golchi; y golch | lien |
| la blanchisserie | laundry (shop, place) | golchdy | gwennerezh; kannerezh |
| la laverie (automatique) | laundrette | laundrette | gwalc’herezh; kanndi |
| la guérison | curing, healing, recovery | iachau; iachâd | pare; gwelladeg |
| la gueule de bois | hangover | pen mawr/clwc; salwch bore drannoeth; salwch ar ôl y ffair | poan vlev |
| joindre les deux bouts | to make ends meet | cael deu ben llinyn ynghyd | |
| avoir beaucoup de mal à joindre les deux bouts; tirer le diable par la queue | to stuggle to make ends meet | cael yn anodd i gael dau ben llinyn ynghyd | |
| l’influence (f) de l’entourage; pression exercée par les autres | peer pressure | pwysau cyfoedion | |
| le loup de mer | old seadog; sea bass | hen forwr; ysbinbysg y môr | bleiz mor; ki mor |
| farcir | to stuff (food) | llenwi; stwffio | farsañ |
| le fenouil | fennel | ffenigl; ffunell | fanouilh |
| malveillant | evil (person) | drwg; drygionus; dihiryn | maliset |
| branlant | wobbly (chair/table) | sigledig; siglog; woblog | brall; divrall |
| tremblant | wobbly (voice/jelly) | crynedig | krenedik |
| avoir les jambes flageolantes | to feel wobbly | teimlo yn sigledig / siglog / woblog | sentet trabidellus |
| Je ne te reproche pas | I don’t blame you | ni welaf i ddim bai arnat ti | |
| une motte de gazon | sod; piece of turf | darn o dywarchen | moudenn leton |
| brouter | to graze (on grass) | pori | peuriñ |
| mouchard | grass (informer) | prepiwr; hen brep; clep; clepgi | to(u)pin |
| donner qn | to grass on sb | prepian am/ar rywun | kelaouiñ da unan bennak |
| la flottabilité | buoyancy | hynofedd | flotuster |
La gueule de bois
This week I discovered that in French a hangover is une gueule de bois (“a wooden mouth”), which seems quite a good description of the condition.
In my thesaurus word for hangover in English include after-effects, katzenjammer, morning after, and the morning after the night before. Do you have any others?
I’ve heard of katzenjammer before, but not in this context – to me it’s the name of a band from Norway. Katzenjammer comes from German and means “cats’ wailing”, and according to the Free Dictionary, it means a confused uproar or a hangover, mainly in US English.
Welsh words for hangover include pen mawr (big head); pen clwc (addled head), salwch bore drannoeth (illness of the following morning) and salwch ar ôl y ffair (illness after the fair).
Since I gave up drinking about 11 years ago I haven’t suffered from a wooden mouth, an addled head or a cats’ wailing, and one reason why I gave up was because I didn’t enjoy such afflictions.
Everything but the kitchen sink
The phrase ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ indicates many things or almost everything, as in ‘I took everything but the kitchen sink with me on holiday. The OED gives the earliest use of the phrase in writing as 1965. The kitchen sink part of the phrase apparently comes from army slang and appears in Partridge’s 1948 Dictionary of Forces’ Slang as “Kitchen sink, used only in the phrase indicating intense bombardment ‘They chucked everything they’d got at us except, or including, the kitchen sink.’”
According to Know Your Phrase, however, it appeared in The Syracuse Herald, an New York newspaper in 1918 in the following sentence.
“I have I shall rather enjoy the experience, though the stitlons are full of people trying to get out and the streets blocked with perambulators, bird cages and ‘everything but the kitchen sink.'”
I discovered yesterday that the French equivalent is ‘tout sauf les murs‘ (everything but the walls), as in j’ai tout emporté sauf les murs = I took everything but the walls.
In Welsh the equivalents are popeth dan haul (everything under the sun) and eich holl drugareddau (your whole bric-a-brac).
Are there equivalent idioms in other languages?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| le filet | net | rhwyd | tanavenn |
| le siège (chair, stool, toilet); la place (on bus/train); la selle (bicycle) | seat | sedd | seziz |
| la hache d’arme | battleaxe | bwyell ryfel; cadfwyell | kadvouc’hal |
| le virago | battleaxe (quarrelsome woman) | hen sguthan; hen arthes | oz(h)ac’hwreg |
| le coucou | cuckoo | cwcw; cog | koukoug |
| la pendule à coucou | cuckoo clock | cloc cwcw | |
| le loutre | otter | dyfrgi | dourgi |
| le slip | underpants | trôns; drafers | bragez vihan |
| les caleçons; les longs | longjohns / leggings | trôns llaes; drafers hir | bragoù-dindan |
| le (chapeau) haut-de-forme | top hat | het silc | |
| le (chapeau) melon | bowler hat | het galed; het gron (galed) | tog-meloñs; tok pompad |
| le chapeau mou | trilby | het feddal; het drilbi | |
| le dent; la roue dentée | cog | dant; cocsyn; olwyn ddannedd | rod dantek |
| être un rouage de la machine | to be (only) a cog in a machine | bod neb o bwys yn y drefn | |
| la gargote | greasy spoon, cheap restaurant | bwyty bwyd loddin; bwyty rhad | tarzhell |
| j’ai tout emporté sauf les murs | I’ve packed everything but the kitchen sink | popeth dan haul; eich holl drugareddau | |
| la gouttière | guttering | landeri; landerydd; bargod | kan-dour |
| le jardin d’hiver | conservatory | ty gwydr; ystafell wydr | jardin go(u)añv |
| la croisière | cruise | mordaith; criws | merdeadenn |
| être en maraude | to cruise (for customers, i.e. taxi) |
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| la brute; le tyran | bully | bwli | tirant |
| tyraniser; rudoyer; intimider | to bully | gormesu; bwlio | gaiet gante; abafiñ |
| la laisse | lead | tennyn | roll |
| le pont | deck (of ship) | bwrdd | pont |
| la passerelle (de commandement) | bridge (of ship) | pont (lywio) | pontenn |
| l’arête (f) / le dos | bridge (of nose) | cefn | ker |
| le chevalet | bridge (of violin) | pont | pontig |
| quand le chat n’est pas là, les souris dansent | when the cat’s away the mice will play | llon llygod lle ni bo cath |
Korriganed
Korriganed are apparently small creatures that live under standing stones (dolmen/menhirs) in Brittany. They feature in one of the lessons in my Breton course and are explained thus:
“Les korrigans doivent être des êtres particulièrement petits, puisque ce mot est formé de korr, “nain”, puis du diminutif -ig puis du’un autre diminutif – obsolète aujourd’hui – -an. Il s’agit donc de “petits petits nains.”
Or
“The korrigans must be particularly small beings, since the word is formed from corr, “dwarf”, and the diminutive -ig and the another diminutive – now obsolete – -an. So they are “little little dwarfs.”
When I read the explanation in French I saw the word nain and thought it was the Welsh word for grandmother, not realising that is means dwarf or midget in French. So for a while I believed that the Korriganed were tiny grandmothers. Later I realised my mistake and discovered the actual meaning of that word.
According to legend, the Korriganed erected the standing stones in Brittany.
Do you mistake words in one language for words in another at all?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| se vendre | to sell out | gwerthu rhth i gyd; gwerthu’r cwbl | gwerzhañ holl (?) |
| la sueur | sweat | chwys | c’hwezenn |
| suer; transpirer | to sweat | chwysu | c’hweziñ |
| suer/transpirer comme un boeuf | to sweat like a pig | chwysu fel mochyn/ceffyl | |
| la scène musicale | the music scene | man cerddoriaeth (?) | |
| ouvert aux éléments | open to the elements | agor i’r gwynt a glaw; agor i’r tywydd mawr | |
| le pavé | paving stone | carreg balmant; fflacsen | pavez |
| la gare routière/d’autobus | bus station | gorsaf fysus | gar ar c’hirri-boutin |
Pseudolanguages
One way English speakers play with English is by making into Pig Latin. This involves move the first sound of each word to the end and adding “ay”; for example Pig Latin becomes Ig-pay atin-lay. If a word starts with a vowel you might add hey, way or yay to the end. This creates a sort of pseudolanguage that sounds vaguely like Latin and can be used as a secret code, or just for fun.
I found an article today about language games like this in other languages.
I knew about Pig Latin, though had never played with, and about Verlan in French, but not about the equivalents in other languages. Have you played any of these games? Do you know of any others?
Les mots de la semaine
| français | English | Cymraeg | Brezhoneg |
|---|---|---|---|
| avoir une idée en tête; être obnublié par qch | to have a bee in one’s bonnet | chwilen yn dy ben | |
| être imbu(e) de soi-même | to be full of oneself | bod yn llawn ohonat ti dy hunan | |
| imbiber qch de | to soak sth in | gwylchu/mwydo rhwybeth mewn | intrañ; spluiañ; gouzourañ |
| s’imbiber de | to become saturated with | dirlenwi efo/gyda | gouzourañ |
| le noisetier | hazel (tree) | cyll | kelver |
| la dépression; la cuvette | hollow | pant; cafn; ceudod | izelder |
| le tourbillon | whirlpool | trobwll; pwll tro | mordro(l)enn(ad); korvent; troenn-vor |
| le mode de comportement | pattern of behaviour | patrwm ymddygiad | patrom emzalc’h |
| l’élastique (m) | rubber band | band rwber/lastig | stirenn; lastikenn |