Mots nouveaux de Maupassant

[muckefuck]

bâbord
billevesée
châtain
douer
gredin
mât
moelleux
rudoyer
songerie
tribord

Comments

[areia.livejournal.com]

Had to look most of those up. The only one I knew was moelleux; though I probably could have gotten bâbord if I'd know it was in a nautical context, since port is bakboord in Dutch.

Is châtain related to chestnut? (At work, so don't have a decent French dictionary handy.)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Latin CASTANEUS "chestnut-coloured". Interestingly, the feminine is regular, i.e. châtaine, when etymologically you'd expect châtaigne.

Also, bâbord (and tribord) isn't the only Dutch in there. All the dictionaries tell me gredin is from "moyen-néerlandais gredich 'avide'". Naturally, the Middle Dutch dictionary lists no such word. The nearest candidate is "geredich/geradich", but the primary meaning given is "behulpzaam".

[areia.livejournal.com]

Try looking up the modern Dutch word gretig. Like avide (another new word for me), it means both greedy and enthusiastic. Sounds like it might be from the same root. Interesting that the meaning of gredin would have moved from a root meaning generally greedy, which I assume could be used in a fairly mild way, to the stronger meaning of rogue or miscreant.

I should really keep a full set of dictionaries at my desk, but being in an IT job I think it might raise some questions with my coworkers. Anyway, I can just ask you. ;)

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

Pleased (and surprised) to find I knew all these except billevesée.....but maybe that's because I'm reading Maupassant too right now! And enjoying him very much.

What surprised me is you being such a foodie and not having had a chocolate moelleux! Find somewhere nearby that does them - they're the bomb.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

So far, out of four French-speakers I've asked, not one has recognised billevesée. All were non-native, however; try slipping it into your convos locally and see what happens.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I mentioned the word to Nuphy, who's such a consummate nerdboy that he immediately had to check the Littré. Our man Émile seems to think it's a much earlier borrowing and brings in comparisons to Old Norse and Gothic to prove it.