sputter, sputter, gag, gag...and me not having time to read all the posts in the last two days...this is one I really would have liked to get to.
You are right CapK. I have never, understood the quinze jours description of a fortnight. It is usually said by someone going on vacation/holiday and is vraiment stupide. I am glad it is going out of style here.
As to l'Académie Française. Good grief, they should come over here to learn a thing or two about keeping your language intact. Our government has often INVENTED words to keep from using an English one. The most notable being the translation of hamburger as hambourgeois. It meant absolutely nothing and is disregarded by EVERYONE - even the fanatical French separatists. The only time you ever see this term on a menu is right after the Language Police (yes we really do have those) have passed and threatened a restaurateur. The owner complies on one menu and changes it back on future printings.
There are scads of examples like this and it only ridicules their motives, which are basically not bad. There is even a hotline set up by the government to give the ‘accepted’ names for everything. Argh – it drives me plain crazy!!!!!
Deep breaths, deep breaths, calming down, deep breaths. Sorry folks. It just annoys the piss right outta me.
