{"id":8372,"date":"2013-03-15T18:35:30","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T18:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=8372"},"modified":"2025-08-07T11:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T11:36:09","slug":"pantoufler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=8372","title":{"rendered":"Pantoufler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I discovered the interesting French word <strong>pantoufler<\/strong> \/p\u0251\u0303.tu.fle\/, which, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.reverso.net\/french-english\/pantoufler\">Reverso<\/a> means to &#8220;switch from civil service to the private sector (French elite jargon, usually to make more money)&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/100091939@N03\/9656210186\/in\/photolist-nSHx9y-vHjuAW-o8aMnU-PY8eCt-ifUYnS-ipvYKs-oa8kP7-fHhASw-ipvZoG-PY8dvP-oa8kYq-nSJwZF-ifVAdX-ipvYj5-ifV3P6-2r6BVKV-ifVJt4-ifVHNM-ifVmpN-ifVprg-fwTzyR-ifUYEL-ifV91t-nSHHQn-ifVbbj-fx8SPy-nSHvmq-ifUCYk-ifUCmt-ipw1nA-ifW67P-4EWEsK-fHhC7u-m7kLvd-PY8gSt-e1vQ9P-fH151Z-ifVjeq-is9wqM-ifVJEN-ifV6k9-njGKZE-ifUL2i-m7jddF-PY8bPT-nrJrjk-ifVfqS-isa7m3-nrsfx9-fNhrHY\" title=\"Pantoufles\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/3737\/9656210186_758febc2d7_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Pantoufles\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pantouflage\">Wikpedia<\/a> the related word <em>pantouflage<\/em> refers to high-level French civil servants, usually former students of the \u00c9cole Polytechnique or the \u00c9cole nationale d&#8217;administration, going to work in private enterprise. It also applies to politicians doing the same thing. Someone who engages in <em>pantouflage<\/em> at known as a <em>pantouflard<\/em>, which is also translated as stay-at-home. <\/p>\n<p>The word <em>pantoufler<\/em> come from <em>pantoufle<\/em> (slipper), which combines <em>pan<\/em> (a piece of cloth) with the suffix <em>-oufle<\/em>, which denotes bloated objects and muffled sounds. A <em>pantoufle<\/em> was originally a cloth shoe [<a href=\"http:\/\/fr.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/pantoufle\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Apparently the term <strong>revolving door<\/strong> is used for this practice in the USA.<\/p>\n<p>In Japan this practice is known as <strong>\u5929\u4e0b\u308a<\/strong> [amakudari] (&#8220;descent from paradise or the sky&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>Are there similar expressions and practices in other languages?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I discovered the interesting French word pantoufler \/p\u0251\u0303.tu.fle\/, which, according to Reverso means to &#8220;switch from civil service to the private sector (French elite jargon, usually to make more money)&#8221;. According to Wikpedia the related word pantouflage refers to high-level French civil servants, usually former students of the \u00c9cole Polytechnique or the \u00c9cole nationale [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,111,10,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-french","category-language","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372","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=8372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24147,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372\/revisions\/24147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}