15/10/2011

Pound of threshold




Shy, this plant is not…

I bought two chayotes, tried to eat one but didn't like it. If there's anything delicious about the chayote, it isn't the taste. Left in the vegetable rack, the second one sprouted. I planted it and it miraculously thrived. Made me think of Jack's beanstalk.



In Taiwan, chayotes are widely planted for their shoots, known as lóng xü cài (龍鬚菜, literally "dragon-whisker vegetable").
In Haiti and Louisiana (Cajun, Creole, English): mirliton :- (kazoo) (I'm a gnu—a-g-nother gnu)
En langage familier, mirliton se dit de sons, d'airs de musique, de vers de mauvaise qualité.

Only translation I could find was "cheap verses".

Chayote reminds me of coyote and Shylock.



But the word that is titillating me at the moment is écueil.

Recif, rocher à fleur d'eau = reef
Difficulté, obstacle = pitfall = noun. 1. a lightly covered and unnoticeable pit prepared as a trap for people or animals.

The dictionary tells me it is a sharp rock under the surface of the sea, but in my mind it is a stagnant dead-end pool.

At first I can't understand how I could have associated such a wrong mental image with the word. I see sand and water lapping to the edge of a shallow pool, it can't go any farther (Bras mort = dead leg) and there is foam on it (l'écume des jours). As I explore the image in my mind the rocks appear, I am walking on rocks that emerge at low tide, and there is some sand and pools and crabs in the pools… 
 
The sound of the word intrigues me. Maybe it is one of the most foreign sounds in French – I can't think of anything similar to it in English.
Écueil, écuyer, cuillère, écureuil, écurie, métayer, œil pour œil, recueil, recueillir, se recueillir et cueillir, Rangueil, orgueil, accueil, éconduire, éculé, veule, vile, écaille, Reuilly

Shale, grève, fange, quicksand, ladle…

Treuil, feuille, Montreuil… which is another story, without a shadow of a doubt...


02/10/2011

Green feline

"Shagreen is a type of leather or rawhide consisting of rough untanned skin, formerly made from a horse's back or that of an onager (wild ass), and typically dyed green. Shagreen is now commonly made of the skins of sharks and rays.
The word derives from the French chagrin and is related to Italian zigrino and Venetian sagrin, derived from the Turkish sāğrī/çāğrī 'rump of a horse' or the prepared skin of this part. The roughness of its texture led to the French meaning of anxiety, vexation, embarrassment, or annoyance."

I came across the word "galuchat" in a job I was doing and read the Wikipedia entry for it. Very interesting. I clicked on "English" and found the amusing word – shagreen – and when I clicked on French to go back I ended up with "chagrin". So the language links in wikepedia are not reciprocal, and words meanings are labyrinthine anyway. The last time I posted I suppose I was so frustrated at not taking the time to post I just loaded my notes "en vrac" – not a word about shagreen other than the word and the echo in "peau de chagrin".

I didn't even explain why I gave the title "evening in" – in opposition to the "evening out" that surprised me because it evoked restaurants and not the sense of "to even out".  Just a slight difference in pronunciation. I love significant nuances.