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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2010 8:16:21 GMT
Every year when the new edition of the Larousse dictionary is released, there is always a lot of discussion of the new words that have entered the dictionary. In this century, the Larousse uses specially designed software to scan everything written in French to see how many times it can find words from a pre-selected list of about 800 "candidates." The Larousse committee keeps about 150 of them after checking with a cross section of the population that they are in general use and well understood.
So, in the 2011 Larousse, here are a few of the new 'French' words:
pop-up fashionista locavore (a person who tries to eat only locally grown products) saladerie footeux (either a spectator or a player whose principal passion is football) agrégateur (internet referencing software) écoquartier (a neighborhood with ecologically respectful buildings) biocombustible
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Post by spindrift on Jun 9, 2010 9:05:49 GMT
Interesting. Please tell us some more.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2010 10:21:29 GMT
Here are a few more, which should indicate that France has less resistance to words imported from English than Québec does:
cheese-cake (with a hyphen!) nerd multirésistant (said of the worst viruses) scrapbooking biogaz coloc (a short version of colocataire = roommate) chocolatine (used for pain au chocolat in southern France, word imported from Québec)
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Post by lagatta on Jun 9, 2010 14:17:10 GMT
coloc is very common in Québec, les Colocs was the name of a very popular musical group, which also had the tragic made-for-cinema story of one member dying of AIDS and another committing hara-kiri. I knew the latter slightly as we took some graduate history courses together at Université de Montréal, although I was some years older, a so-called "mature student".
Interesting that southern France has adopted chocolatine.
Why is écoquartier dubious French? Or biocombustible, for that matter? (the latter is a bit silly, as petroleum and coal are of biological origin as well, but nothing to do with French).
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2010 14:21:22 GMT
Not dubious French, but they had not made it to the dictionary yet. Same as 'coloc' which has also been common for years but had not been added to the dictionary (probably because the concept is not very common in France).
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Post by lagatta on Jun 9, 2010 14:42:16 GMT
The reason it is more common here is that a hundred or even 50 years ago, the Church reigned supreme so ordinary working-class flats had more bedrooms than they do in major French cities (they were just as crowded, with many children even among urban families). Yes, I know people in France value privacy very much, but I don't think most people past university age enjoy sharing houses with people who are not their companion or family either.
How about Le Robert? I usually use that dico, not Larousse.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 9, 2010 16:55:23 GMT
Do these words, or versions of them, occur in English? If not, they need to.
locavore (a person who tries to eat only locally grown products) saladerie agrégateur (internet referencing software) écoquartier (a neighborhood with ecologically respectful buildings)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2010 17:05:16 GMT
How about Le Robert? I usually use that dico, not Larousse. I prefer the Robert as well, but the Robert 2011 doesn't come out for another week or two, so the Larousse gets the PR bonus. Seeing that 'nerd' is now a French word, I was thinking about 'geek' -- but geek probably already arrived a year or two ago.
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Post by spindrift on Jun 11, 2010 11:17:38 GMT
They haven't got round to 'munter' yet
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2010 19:17:28 GMT
I haven't either. I don't have the slightest idea what that could possibly mean.
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Post by Jazz on Jun 11, 2010 20:15:54 GMT
Do these words, or versions of them, occur in English? If not, they need to. locavore (a person who tries to eat only locally grown products) saladerie agrégateur (internet referencing software) écoquartier (a neighborhood with ecologically respectful buildings) locavore does occur in English and is becoming very common. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/locavoreI very much like the word, ecoquartier but haven't seen its' English equivalent, unless it's a phrase, 'a neighborhood with ecologically respectful buildings'. We have taken many French words into English usage and I think this would be another good one. Much preferable to 'a neighborhood etc......'
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Post by onlymark on Jun 11, 2010 20:33:23 GMT
Eco-quarter is the thing. With a hyphen.
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Post by onlymark on Jun 11, 2010 20:37:49 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Jun 11, 2010 23:05:23 GMT
Ive also seen both ecodistrict and eco-district (not econeighbourhood).
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