Monday, December 12, 2005
C’est francais
From wordsmith.org:
The great humorist Mark Twain once said, “In Paris they simply stared when
I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots
understand their language.” Well, that’s the pitfall of learning a foreign
language away from its natural habitat. We might become proficient in the
grammar but there is never a certainty about the nuances of the language.No matter. Some of the terms we borrow from French have become an integral
part of the English language. They often help us convey a whole idea
succinctly, in just a word or two. This week let’s see five such terms from
French.degringolade (day-grang-guh-LAYD) noun
A rapid decline, deterioration, or collapse (of a situation).
[From French, from dégringoler (to tumble down, fall sharply),
from Middle French desgringueler, from des- (de-) + gringueler
(to tumble), from Middle Dutch crinkelen (to curl).]-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)
“Even before the latest degringolade, Mr Duncan Smith’s position
had been disintegrating.”
Bruce Anderson; This is Duncan Smith’s Last Stand; The Independent
(London, UK); Feb 24, 2003.