There's no word...
There's no word in French for:
- tumbleweed
- frown
- shallow
- serendipity
- vicarious
- bully
About Arno
Arno makes pictures, explores the ocean,
ponders the world and dreams of traveling. He currently designs software at
a large software company.
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4 comments:
...apart from froncement, superficiel, hereux hasard, vicariant, matamore...
On the other hand, there's no word in English for "jobard"
Well, those word are vaguely similar, but they don't mean the same thing as the english words.
- In the expression "Turn this frown upside down", the frown is a facial expression involving mostly muscles around the mouth and denoting sadness. In French, the expression "froncement de sourcil" ("froncement" when used alone more commonly refers to a gathering of fabric than a facial expression) denotes a facial expression involving the brow and indicating surprise or anger.
- "This is a shallow pool" would not be translated
as "Ceci est un etang superficiel". "Superficiel" only
applies to the abstract sense of shallow (i.e. when
it refers to someone's character). In the sense
of "depth", the expression is "peu profond", that is
"Ceci est un etang peu profond"
- "heureux hasard" is not a word :-)
- "vicariant" is "acting in the capacity of a vicar". The english meaning is "experienced secondhand".
- "matamore" is "faux brave, vantard plus courageux en paroles qu'en actes" ("falsely brave, boaster more courageous in words than actions"). Bully is someone using violence or threat of violence to intimidate. Interestingly, the French Wikipedia page on "Bully" gives the english etymology (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully)
Speaking of words and "meaning halos", perhaps you could be interested in that game (while waiting for an English version) : http://www.lirmm.fr/jeuxdemots
"Heureux hasard", ce sont deux morphèmes, mais c'est un mot. Sorry for those who don't make the difference.
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