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this phrase has shown up in two threads over the past couple of days, which prompts this comment/question: most dictionaries give the etymology of double entendre as an obsolete French phrase which translates as "double meaning", but in English usually implies that one meaning is indelicate.
I was surprised to discover in the OED that the original (obsolete) French phrase was double entente.
Why the change of words, and is neither expression extant in modern French?
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Dear tsuwm: double meanings often occur unintentionally. They are very common as a form of irony. Ribaldry is more permissible when not explicit.And everybody has to get into the act and change things, as you have pointed out to me.
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Neither rendition is in my fancy new French dictionary  . Should I take it back?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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addict
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Reminds me of a groaner
"Have you ever had deja vu?
Nope. I don't eat French food. It keeps repeating on me.
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dear bill, just so; but that wasn't my question. why the change from entente to entendre?
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By the by,my friend Michael Vickers of Oxford has been working on Aristophanes
for several years now, and has written dazu: he believes Aristophanes is
*far* more obscene in his double-entendres than we have even guessed so
far. Guess what? He can't find a publisher for his work....The more things
change,....
I'd like to see some samples.
A number of sites include double entendres as a form of sexual harassment. So beware.
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Aristophanes loses quite a bit in translation. His plays becomes incredibly hilarious if one reads (say) three translations simultaneously, picking the best from each.
I'd like to see some samples.
"Some lovefeast! The only thing getting laid here is the table." -- Lysistrata
[further suitable only for PM]
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Dear tsuwm: the only "entente" I remember is the Entente Cordiale that checked the Kaiser in early 1900's, until he built up his navy enough to feel able to risk war:
Agadir 1911
Double Entendre (English-French for Un mot à double
entente, or à deux ententes).
Words which secretly express a rude or coarse covert meaning, generally of a licentious character.
“Entendre” is the infinitive mood of a verb, and is never used as a noun.
I think that "entendre" means to understand, and I think that "entente" means agreement.
Not one to give up easily, Kaiser Wilhelm sends a warship to the Moroccan town
of Agadir in 1911 to "subtly" show German presence. This time, however, he
comes face to face with the Entente Cordiale, who put enough pressure on the
Kaiser to make him back out of Morocco completely.
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Yes Bill, the tawdry cycle of gunboat diplomacy reached its zenith at Agadir. Of course, one of the first examples was Commodore Perry sailing into Tokyo Bay!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Now tell me where he learned the trick!
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