Unlikely Verbs

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I'd like to nominate "déferriser", meaning "to remove iron from". I

found it on the back of my mineral water bottle (St Yorre - which

claims to be the most highly mineralised water of all - who am I to

argue - and seemingly contains useful quantities of arsenic, lately

shown to be almost certainly an essential mineral for human

developement). Mineral water bottles, along with cereal boxes, form a

valuable source of information in this household.

How many uses can a verb like this have? Can anyone offer one that

DOESN'T refer to mineral waters? Or are there more unlikely verbs out

there with which to enrich my vocabulary?

[Dick Smith]

Perhaps Sartre might have used it on another day when he wasn't feeling so depressing?

dépatiser - to unbaptise (never knew you could do that)

débarbouiller (presumably analagous to the opposite of growing a beard)

défaire (take apart or unmake)

Is that the sort of thing you mean?

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of. I actually find défaire quite useful but dépatiser is not something one comes across every day, is it?

[Loiseau]

I always think "dépanner" is rather bizarre. "To unbreak-down"?

I was amused on a visit to French Canada to see large signs proclaiming "dépanneur", and to find that they indicated a local convenience store (a sort of huit-a-huit) rather than a breakdown garage!

Angela

[SaligoBay]

They use it that way in France too, although not for the shop itself.   French people have always got a stock of convenience food products in their cupboards and freezers (Thiriet, Picard, Garbit couscous, all those products that British people think French people don't eat!).    Why?   Pour dépanner, of course!   You might be surprised at how often they need to be dépanned foodwise!! [:)] 

[Mpprh]

Hi

Tutoyer is a pretty unlikely one to Brits, less so for others.

 

Peter

 

[Patf]

What about " lutter"? Not exactly unlikely but used a lot especially in

the Press. The french seem to be constantly struggling and fighting

battles.  It's said, not sure by whom, that you can discover a lot

about the characteristics of a nation by the structure and types of

words of their language.  eg eskimos have ?20+ words for snow. Pat.

[Opalienne]

And Albanians have 20 or so words for moustache!   If people haven't read The Meaning of Tingo by Adam Jacot de Boinod (available from Amazon) I can thoroughly recommend it.   It contains a French expression that perfectly sums up the most-disliked of our neighbours:  a 'seigneur-terrasse' (someone who thinks he's a big man in a cafe but never puts his hand in his pocket)

[YCCMB]

IMHO you'll have to go a long way to beat "farter" (to wax one's skis) as the most unlikely verb in the French language. [:D]It still has the ability to make me giggle like an adolescent even though it's over 30 years since I first heard it used!![:$]

[SaligoBay]

In that case, Croixblanches, you'll have to watch Brice de Nice.  Twice or thrice. 

ça farte?

ça farte!

[:)]

[YCCMB]

Natch, SB - as soon as it comes to the multiplex in Staines (that's Staines, not a dyslexic rendition of Saintes) I'll be there!![;)] Wanted to go when in France, but as I'm the only person in the famille who can  even vaguely understand, I was outvoted, and as French IS the VO, I'm stuck!![:(]

[SaligoBay]

Oh dear!   I'm not sure why, but one time we watched it with the English subtitles.  For "ça farte?" they put something like "how's it waxing?". 

I was very traumatised by the loss of "ça farte", I'm not sure I've got over it yet.

They should think of us bilingual people who should be old enough to know better!

[:)]

[YCCMB]

Of course! Why didn't I think?? Is it out on DVD??[:D]

[SaligoBay]

Mais oui!!   Have to warn you though, first time through you'll feel like you've taken drugs and are in full flight out of an upstairs window.   That's why you have to watch it a few more times, to fully appreciate its subtle beauty.  [;)]

[YCCMB]

[quote user="SaligoBay"]Mais oui!!   Have to warn you though, first time through you'll feel like you've taken drugs and are in full flight out of an upstairs window.  ][/quote]

So it won't affect my normal state of mind at all, then?[;)]

 

[daniel]

Déferriser is a good one, but how about défriser (parisian slang :

cause discontent). Exemple : "y en a qui se fartent quand y voient la

tronche à Sarko, et ben moi y me défrise" (ben = bien. y=il(s).

Tronche=tête*). According to my English thesaurus, you would say the

opposite : "make one's hair curl".

*a bilingual one : "tronche de cake" (=stupid face).

[Will]

Going back to the previous topic, then the name 'Peter' in English is of course often confused with the verb 'peter' (to fart) in French. Similarly we have a relation with a holiday home nearby whose surname is 'Pedder', which causes much alarm to the locals who think he must be a 'PD' (paedo). While the English word 'surname' is 'nom de famille' in French, and French 'surnom' is roughly the same as 'nickname' in English. This could go on and on.

A new word I have recently come across is 'courriel' which I thought at first was a typo on a French website, but I have seen it used several times since. It means 'e-mail message'. It's not in Collins Robert, though that gives a clue to its origin, looks like it should be an abbreviation of 'courrier electronique'.

 

[Teamedup]

courriel has been around for ages Will the C, one of those, let us have our own word rather than an anglo saxon word in our language things.  Not one of my friends uses it and all say just 'mail', with french accent, obviously.

[YCCMB]

Tu, I think "mél" actually has made it into some dictionaries!!

[Mochas]

My Collins-Robert has 'mel' (can't do accents) but not 'courriel' and the WordReference.com online dictionary has both.

These words are discussed in the WordRef forum where somebody also

mentions 'pourriel' as a short form of 'pourri' and 'electronique' -

tainted mail - French Canadian for spam. I rather like that one.

[Patf]

The word "farter" might be related to a word I once found in our

english dictionary - " fartlek". Which I think means to go on foot

covering the ground with alternating fast and slow strides. It comes

from one of the nordic languages, something to do with moving across

snow. Pat.

[Loiseau]

I have been trying to resist pointing out the opposite: that "pet shop" and "pet food" cause the French the same hilarity on their visits to the UK...

Angela

[Mistral]

I like pourriel. I think I shall start using that. Courriel has been used for ages by the canadians and I've seen it in french for about the last 5 years although until most french people had never heard of it and they still mostly say mail (mél)

Back to interesting verbs; our town magazine had désensabler yesterday (remove sand)  I've always been fascinated by the fact that french has a word for "throw (someone) out of a window"'  defenestrer; You can even use it reflexively.

 

[Christine Animal]

Mistral, that's funny yesterday I was going to say I had always loved the verb defenestrer for going out of a window.  But before posting I checked in the dictionary and the translation was defenestrate.  What do you mean by you can even use it reflexively?

 

[Opalienne]

Defenestrate as an English verb is well known by those of us who had to study mediaeval European history for A level - the defenestration of Prague started the 100 years war, if I remember right. I can't remember who threw who out of the window, except that it was clearly at Catholic who got the push, since the defenestrator said "Let your Mary save you now".......