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#98542 03/12/03 10:57 PM
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massage, griffonage, partage, cabotinage, parquetage, montage, decoupage, persiflage, montage, entourage,
corsage, decolletage, bocage, triage, dressage, arbitrage, effleurage, and panachage. Can you think of others?
Here is an interesting play on the Gryphon's name. Gubernatis, in his Zoological
Mythology, explains that "...as Apollo is the prophetical and divining deity, whose oracle,
when consulted, delivers itself in enigmas, the word griffen, too, meant enigma, logogriph
being an enigmatical speech, and griffonage an entangled, confused, and embarrassing
handwriting." Incidentally, griffonage is the only word that still sees (moderate) use
today.


partage = saving

cabontinage - a conry contribution to Carolyn's Corner = poor acting, coined from French actor's name.
Not to be confused with "cabotage" = coastwise shipping

parquetage = abstraction, referring to flooring

montage - artwork combining images from various sources

corsage - f;pwers worn over

entourage - a group accompanying an important person

decoupage - the art of cutting out designs

corsage - a small bouquet of flowers worn typically over the left pectoral area

decolletage - a dress with neckline low enough to display cleavage

bocage - the wooded countryside of northern France

triage - in disasters, the sorting of cases according to suitabillity for treatment.

dressage
n.
5Fr, training < dresser, to arrange, train < OFr drecier: see prec.6 exhibition riding or horsemanship in which the horse is controlled in certain difficult steps and gaits by very slight movements of the rider

arbitrage
5LME < Fr < arbitrer, to judge < L arbitrari: see ARBITRATE; for 2, < Fr arbitrage6
1 a simultaneous purchase and sale in two separate financial markets in order to profit from a price difference existing between them
2 a buying of a large number of shares in a corporation in anticipation of, and with the expectation of making a profit from, a merger or takeover: in full risk arbitrage
vi.
3traged#, 3trag#ing to engage in arbitrage

effleurage (noun) -

1. a rhythmic stroking
"effleurage of the abdomen is used in the Lamaze method of childbirth"

panachage - something to do with elections. I couldn't find a good definition. Closest I could come was:
"for more than one candidate across different party lists (known as panachage),"



#98543 03/13/03 12:33 AM
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Dear Dr. Bill! You forgot faldage!


#98544 03/13/03 01:42 AM
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Dear WO'N: Those French words were chosen by Carolyn. And Faldage is closer to Gaelic
tjan Gallic. To boot, all those words were abstractions. Nothing abstract about good ol'
ovine guano manopolist.


#98545 03/13/03 05:35 AM
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badinage, bandage, garage, garbage

Bingley


Bingley
#98546 03/13/03 02:37 PM
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And I'm in my dotage.


#98547 03/13/03 04:35 PM
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triage - in disasters, the sorting of cases according to suitabillity for treatment.

Isn't it really a military term? It once meant to divide into three groups (hence "tri-"): the only-slightly-hurt who really don't need much and will likely get better anyway; the moderately injured who need and receive active treatment; and the the grievously wounded who are going to die regardless, don't use your limited resources on them, except - maybe - give them morphine and make them comfortable until they do.

The registration desk at my hospital's Emergency Room was called the "Triage Desk," and patients were assessed briefly, then given wait-your-turn or you're-in-trouble-go-in-right-now status. I had a friend who shuddered when she first saw the sign there. Having been around in WWII, to her it meant "decide who shall be ignored, don't waste your effort, time, and supplies on hopeless cases, just pile them over there to die." Not what she had been expecting to see in a modern hospital.

Quite a shift in meaning over forty years.


#98548 03/13/03 04:44 PM
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Dear wofahulicodoc: I first learned the word at the VA Hospital Brockton, MA,about 1960
when we had disaster drills. Haven't seen or used it since.

#98549 03/13/03 05:10 PM
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Isn't it really a military term?

I can see that it would get a lot of use in military medical contexts where the demand would be high and the supply low during combat. The first time I heard it was on the TV show M*A*S*H.


#98550 03/13/03 05:57 PM
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the Urgent Care dept. at our clinic has a triage nurse who sorts patients when they come in.


#98551 03/13/03 06:21 PM
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AHD and M-W agree that it is from the French trier, to sort, and has nothing to do with three. In battlefield use you would end up with two categories, those that you would treat right there and those you wouldn't. That the latter were subdivided into two, those for whom treatment wouldn't help and those who didn't need treatment seems to be coincidental.



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