|
|
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 4
stranger
|
stranger
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 4 |
I know there were coal-oil miner's lamps, since I've got one on my mantle (complete with cotton wick). The carbide lamps came later, followed by the electric ones, of course. the coal-oil lamps go back to the era of mine-mules, which my grandfather used to shoe.
George F. Feissner
Math. Dept.
SUNY College at Cortland
Cortland, NY 13045
George F. Feissner
Math. Dept.
SUNY College at Cortland
Cortland, NY 13045
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
NO explanations of how they came about, just citations to a place where they appear in print. That, to me, is the second drawback to the dictionary, the first of course being it's incompleteness.
To George:
OK. That goes back further than I knew about. Thaks for setting me straight.
TEd
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
I always found the French expression, "leche la fenetre" (lick the window or what I would call window shopping) odd until I went to France and found that stores don't often have windows advertising goods for sale but bakeries do!
(How's my spelling bel??)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
 Pretty good Zed. You're only missing a couple of accents - but I know very few folks have access to a French keyboard outside of Québec, so I know you knew that the accents had to go there but just couldn't put them in because of hardware limitations, eh.  Lèche la fenêtre (lick the window) Lécher la fenêtre (licking the window) I've never heard it put quite that way though. I've heard it as "faire du lèche fenêtre" (do some window-licking)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
Bel, I was taught 'faire la lèche-vitrine' rather than using fenêtre.
Can you shed any light on whether this is a difference between French French and Quebecois French, or a sign of my age or something else entirely?
..and now I am thinking of all those words in French for 'window', because I am pretty sure we were also taught 'glace' for car windows. I understand that 'vitrine' tend to be oversize windows - retail premises rather than houses. What do you use for an office window?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
And then there’s this:
lech·er: NOUN: A man given to lechery. ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old French lecheor, from lechier, to lick, to live in debauchery, of Germanic origin.
Copied from AHD
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
And how did one stumble across this, Dixbie?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Simple:
Just lecher fingers do the walking.
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
HA HA HA!!!!! That was great!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
And how did one stumble across this, Dixbie?Umm. It just struck one as probable and so one went alookin'! TEd, that was to a high standard of lecherdermain  .
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,809
Members9,187
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
403
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
