{"id":23132,"date":"2023-10-25T16:30:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T16:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23132"},"modified":"2023-10-26T15:09:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T15:09:48","slug":"losing-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23132","title":{"rendered":"Losing the North"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you are lost, you might say in French \u201c<strong>j\u2019ai perdu le nord<\/strong>\u201d. It means literally that you have lost the north, and can also be translated as to lose one\u2019s way or one\u2019s bearings, to become dazed and confused, or to lose one\u2019s marbles, to lose one\u2019s head or to lose contact.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/remydwd\/86706137\/in\/photolist-8EoHp-7ikk7k-dr8pXJ-62g84t-JZvSrP-55eUHz-6YzMhB-dd1afX-pvqBQF-542uVx-pai8qF-dNSgFc-WaUgV-Q9fE37-7tvGEE-2nkABpL-2meNhSw-2o9nvTN-RFHTSp-hgkMn-2hNfTkv-21Rdak7-9NtWtb-d8muf-5EPcxw-8UoQsU-MD1s-8hZoRK-kdQKa-ubiod-6J91J4-4uZPyK-MDqmuz-fJsNQW-4cUNBm-4FkCbS-4Fgn4a-nLwSFe-qACvcu-xm7KN-3CYFU-4cQP12-9QjYDH-qQTQfG-jkJZD-5eQgdz-ACcjD7-apgpCT-exLtPf-EZz7vt\" title=\"Compass\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/38\/86706137_d78332b01a_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Compass\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Alternatively you could say \u201c<strong>je suis \u00e0 l\u2019ouest<\/strong>\u201d (\u201cI am in the west\u201d), which means to be spaced out, to not be with it, or to lose one\u2019s bearings.<\/p>\n<p>Other words for <strong>confused<\/strong> in French include <strong>confus<\/strong>, <strong>perplexe<\/strong> and <strong>d\u00e9sorient\u00e9<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Confus<\/strong> (confused, confusing, ashamed, embarrassed), comes from Latin <em>c\u014dnfusus<\/em> (mixed, united, confounded, confused), from <em>c\u014dnfund\u014d<\/em> ( to pour together, mix), from <em>con-<\/em> (with, together) and <em>fund\u014d<\/em> (to pour, shed).<\/p>\n<p>English words from the same roots include <strong>confound<\/strong>, <strong>confuse<\/strong>, <strong>diffuse<\/strong>, <strong>found<\/strong>, <strong>fuse<\/strong> and <strong>profound<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Perplexe<\/strong> (puzzled, perplexed, confused) comes from Latin <em>perplexus<\/em> (entangled, involved, intricate, confused), from <em>plect\u014d<\/em> (I weave, I twist), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*ple\u1e31-<\/em> (to fold, weave). The English word <strong>perplexed<\/strong> comes from the same roots, via Old French.<\/p>\n<p><strong>D\u00e9sorient\u00e9<\/strong> (disorientated, bewildered, confused) comes from <strong>d\u00e9sorienter<\/strong> (to disorientate, confuse), from  <strong>d\u00e9s-<\/strong> (dis-\/de-) and <strong>orienter<\/strong> (to orientate, set to north, guide), from Old French <em>oriant<\/em> (Orient, the East), from Latin <em>oriens\/orentem<\/em> (rising, appearing, originating, daybreak, dawn, sunrise, east), from <em>orior<\/em> (I rise, get up, appear, originate), from PIE <em>*h\u2083er-<\/em> (to stir, rise, move).<\/p>\n<p>The English words <strong>disorentated<\/strong> and <strong>orientated<\/strong> come from the same roots, as do such words as <strong>orient<\/strong>, <strong>origin<\/strong>, <strong>random<\/strong> and <strong>run<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>So when you\u2019re disorientated, you\u2019re not sure where the east is. These days maps are generally orientated towards the north, or in other words, north is at the top. However, in Medieval times, maps made by European cartographers were orientated towards the orient or east in the direction of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Other orientations were and are available.<\/p>\n<p>Why is north usually up on maps? The Map Men explain in this video:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B14Gtm2Z_70?si=7nRMRufipIrbmG4z\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Do you have any other interesting ways to say you&#8217;re lost or confused?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a song called \u201cAi-je perdu le nord ?\u201d (Have I lost the north?) by Clio, a French singer:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tK7EkEUQk1c?si=AAVgHX3miL2QwCFd\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sources:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.reverso.net\/english-french\/confused\">https:\/\/dictionary.reverso.net\/english-french\/confused<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/confus#French\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/confus#French<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/perplexe#French\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/perplexe#French<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/d%C3%A9sorient%C3%A9\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/d\u00e9sorient\u00e9<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Category:English_terms_derived_from_the_Proto-Indo-European_root_*h%E2%82%83er-\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Category:English_terms_derived_from_the_Proto-Indo-European_root_*h\u2083er-<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Category:English_terms_derived_from_the_Proto-Indo-European_root_*%C7%B5%CA%B0ewd-<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Category:English_terms_derived_from_the_Proto-Indo-European_root_*\u01f5\u02b0ewd-<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you are lost, you might say in French \u201cj\u2019ai perdu le nord\u201d. It means literally that you have lost the north, and can also be translated as to lose one\u2019s way or one\u2019s bearings, to become dazed and confused, or to lose one\u2019s marbles, to lose one\u2019s head or to lose contact. Alternatively you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,111,10,15,34,45,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-language","category-latin","category-old-french","category-proto-indo-european","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23132"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23139,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23132\/revisions\/23139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}