January 27, 2012

Le Boudoir

FBF has always gotten a kick out of the things Americans consider French that aren’t French at all. While the French do say “sacre,” they never add the “bleu.” They don’t say ménage-à-trois when speaking about threesomes (a plan-à-trois or a partouse).

The first time I said the word “boudoir,” he didn’t understand what I was talking about. I had assumed he’d know what I was talking about because I had assumed boudoir was a French word. FBF immediately laughed at me. Boudoir, he assured me between chuckles, is not a French word.

The closest thing is bouder; a French verb meaning to pout.

After explaining to him that it means bedroom (and often said in a way that implies all of the things one might do in said bedroom... or maybe that's just me?), he combined the two definitions to create a new one : “une chambre où on vas pour bouder” (a room where we go to pout).

We continued to use the word in that sense for a while, until one fateful day at the beach in Brittany last summer.

Being in Brittany meant I met a whole new slew of FBF’s childhood friends and once again was bombarded by questions about America.

One of his friends is getting her masters in French literature from La Sorbonne. We got to talking about the use of fake French words in English, and I brought up boudoir.

Much to my delight, and FBF’s humiliation, boudoir is in fact a French word! It's a small room originally created for women to have an intimate, private space amongst themselves, similar to a powder room in English (in the “ladies, don’t we all have to powder our noses at the same time?” sense).


An illustration of a boudoir.


In fairness to FBF, it is a dated term originating from the verb bouder, so he was half right. Plus he's a chemist. I doubt he's ever studied the French language dating from the Era of the Sun King in much length.

As this is not the first time he's lead me astray when it comes to translations (like what the pas means in Nord-Pas-de-Calais), I am as much to blame as he is. I really ought to learn my lesson and stop trusting him on matters of his own language.

Do you know of any "French" words we use in English that aren't French at all? Does your French boyfriend continually lead you astray in matters of the French language?

18 comments:

  1. lol! A boudoir is also a lady finger.. you know, those little biscuits used in tiramisu? J leads me astray all the time, but mostly when he neglects to inform me that something is NSFW, when my line of work is with 3 yr old children. That was a fun year.. learned all of those lessons the hard way!
    I think one of the characters in TinTin always says "sacré bleu!" or else I'm just making that up. I have heard it said and I think the one time I heard it my eyes lit up. It was excellent.

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    1. Oh yeah? I had no idea about the biscuits used in tiramisu... probably because I don't like it. Remember that tiramich'ti you made? That was delicious. I also didn't know about TinTin! I'm glad you've heard it used in every day speech as I haven't and it makes me feel lied to by Disney.

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  2. The one example I can think of is when my (in their 30s) work colleagues said "une couleur qui pète" to mean a bright, catchy color. I used it in front of Ben and he was like, whaaat? Of course, being a boy, the only use for pète he knows is fart, lol. He would say "une couleur qui claque" which, of course, the work people found ridiculous. None of this helps the confused foreigner! Though I'll get my revenge during our trip to the states and the whole soda/pop thing . . .

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    1. There are so many different uses for the word fart in French! It's astounding. I have a blog post on it in the works and now I'll have to ad this example to the list.

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  3. As for French, no ... besides, obviously, "French" fries.

    Spanish people call a suit jacket "un americano," which I find funny.

    We call a rice dish "Spanish rice," even when it's not something Spaniards eat. Mario enjoys it, but it's definitely not Spanish.

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    1. That is funny! There are also loads of things the French all "American" that aren't at all (another blog post I've been working on of course!). I guess since there are so many native Spanish speakers in America we don't wrongly use Spanish words as much, but maybe you have a totally difference experience.

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  4. What a charming post! I loved his, “une chambre où on vas pour bouder"...made me giggle. Hope you're enjoying California as you keep us all connected with you until your return.

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    1. Thank you! We would often say like "ooo do you need to go in your boudoir? " to each other after beating one another at a game etc. California has been good but strange. It's weird to be back and see how much France has changed me.

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  5. There's a French expression that I heard on various occasions in American TV shows and press articles: it's "cause celebre". I'm French and I've never used it - or even heard it - in any French conversation! I searched the Internet and found the following definition: "Issue or incident that attracts great public attention". I think it's really funny that English speakers use it and the French don't. I tend to believe that maybe this expression was in use in the past and is now obsolete in today's French language, but I can't find a good explanation regarding the origins of the expression.
    Anyway, I really like when English speakers resort to French words. It's kinda cute (and sexy). Especially when they talk about food! :-)
    Emilie

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    1. I've never noticed "cause celebre" so I can't be much help in solving the mystery! And food is definitely an area where we steal a lot of your words.. we just don't have as refined a vocabulary as you do in that arena so people who really enjoy food have to use French!

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  6. I think this is the first time I'm posting a comment on your blog, and can I just say that by looking at the list of Popular posts on the left side, I already know that I like you a lot.

    Anyway, I can't think of any "French" words used in English that aren't actually French at the moment, but the ones that annoy me most are the actual French words that have different meanings in English, like à la mode (with ice cream, what the hell???) and entrée (which is even more confusing for me now since Australian English uses it the same way as the French but I'm still used to the American meaning.)

    I feel like French changes the meanings/uses of borrowed words from English a lot more which confused the hell out of my students. No, you cannot use speed or fashion as adjectives in English. No, you cannot say that you have a dressing in your bedroom or that you wear baskets on your feet.

    But maybe that's just me and my love of complaining about France and French stuff.

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    1. Why thank you! I also get annoyed with the French misuse of English words. I really really hate the word re-looking. It makes me want to tear my hair out!

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  7. cool post...

    http://parganorway.wordpress.com

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  8. I suddenly find myself concerned that the polish I can speak isn't real at all...

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  9. Hi !

    "Ménage à trois" is definitely French but it is when 3 people LIVE together with an accepted love triangle (implying... something else, but not exclusively) ;)

    "Boudoir" is far to be un unknown word, I would say your BF is an ignorant xD There are also boudoirs for men, where they smoke good cigars and drink fine whiskey, surrounded by bookcases...

    "Sacrebleu" as well as "morbleu" or other words including this old pronunciation of "Dieu" (God) are litterary and not in use anymore since the XIXth century. They are considered as profanities from the Monarchy times. They are abundant in "the 3 Musketeers" which was written in 1844 but is set in the XVIIth century. Mid-century franco-belgian comic books used them still a bit because of the censorship of profanities. Tintin says "Sapristi" as Mickey would say "Hot diggity !" :)


    To end this, "une couleur qui pète" is actually in use... "Péter" meaning "exploding, blowing up" here !

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    1. Hi Julien,

      I knew that it meant to live together, hence why it does not mean a three-some. However in English when we say "ménage à trois" we do mean a sexual experience with three people, usually happening only once.

      I don't think boudoir is very commonplace French, especially considering the fact that not very many young people go to rooms to smoke cigars, drink whiskey, and read (although I did some research about boudoir before writing this post, and nothing came up with it being used as a name for a smoke room).

      Just so you know, ignorant is an adjective so you can't be "an ignorant." You are ignorant, or you are an ignorant something.

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  10. That reminds me of the way English words can be misused in Brazil. We call a billboard "outdoor", I remember once in the US I said "look at that outdoor!" and only got confused stares as a response.

    We also always call a laptop "notebook", which isn't so wrong but always makes Americans laugh.

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    1. Totally relate to this but backwards! The French do the same thing (misusing English words), and it does make me laugh. A "relooking" for a make-over is a particularly silly one to me.

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