Se Parpelager

[Pixietoadstool]

I am having difficulty with a verb in Marcel Pagnol's Jean de Florette. It is I think parpelager or se parpelager i.e. il se parpelageait (sp?) for instance. It looks to mean something like hanging around or loafing about or possibly fidgeting. It isn't in my dictionary (the big Collins one), it isn't recognised by Babelfish and I asked a French colleague yesterday who said he had never heard of it but maybe thought it was sud-est patois. However, I notice in the book that when M Pagnol uses slang or patois he usually puts it in quote markes whereas this is just in the main text. The verb is used several times in the novel.

Any ideas??

Valerie

[Patf]

LAST EDITED ON 15-Jun-04 AT 11:14 AM (BST)

Could be that it comes from the word for pilgrim - pelerin - but the g is missing. Pelage means a furry coat and other words starting pel- are connected with skin.The "par-" is probably a prefix meaning through or by. Someone will know - Pucette?

[SaligoBay]

parpelger. Cligner des yeux.

Ex: Tu as de la poussire dans l'oeil, ou quoi, que tu parpelges depuis un moment?
Non! C'est que j'ai sommeil.