how common? - Wordsmith.org

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The English word gestion, according to the OED, means A carrying on or out; conduct, management. In connection with a PM exchange, I would like to know just how common this term is nowadays in the various English-speaking regions. And is there any particular nuance distinguishing it from "management". Is it a more encompassing term?

never heard it, but then, I'm not in Management.

but thanks for the suggestion...

I don't think I've heard it, either, but I'll try to digest it and see if there's any congestion.

Very little (proper) English is spoken here on the Left Coast of the Colonies and what of it is seems not to include the word "gestion."

I'd not be surprised to discover that ole Th. Jefferson was the *last* USn to use gestion and get away with it; to wit: exercised that participation in the gestion of affairs which his office made incumbent on him.

[edited for emPHAsis]

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Very little (proper) English is spoken here on the Left Coast of the Colonies and what of it is seems not to include the word "gestion."

Wull � Washington State never was no colony of no English speaking country that I ever heard of. Mehbe ya'll speak Russian or summat out there.

Well, Wsieber, since "gestion" as "management" has meaning when speaking in French, maybe a member of our Canadian contingent will tell us if "gestion" has any currency in the bilingual American North.

They are mostly switch hitters up there and should be able to answer your interesting gestion.

I've never come across this term in any context, in work either side of the pond come to that. It'll be interesting to hear more about how you've encountered it, w.

wsieber, how would you pronounce gestion? This is a very common French word so my mind is not wrapping around a good English pronunciation.

I'd go for dzhestshun with the emphasis on the first syllable. Like suggestion without the sug. B&M OED more or less agrees with me. They do list dzhes tea an first.

I've been trying to figure out a way to explain how I pronounce gestion, but there just isn't an English equivalent to the initial G.

Have you seen the movie Gigi? The way Maurice Chevalier pronounces Gigi with the Gs being soft. That is how the initial G is pronounced.

G - like Gigi,
es - like the ess in "less"
ti - tee
on - like the on in "only."

It's called a voiced post-alveolar fricative /zh/. It's more common in French than in English. Like the second g in garage or the z in azure for some, but not all speakers. Best is a /zh/ like Faldo. Or use SAMPA /Z/ or Unicode (IPA) /ʒ/. Some use a z with a haček or caron /�/. I see that many of the Unicode symbols no longer work with the new forum software.

>>>voiced post-alveolar fricative

Wow zmj. I know exactly what they are saying when I read the article, but I admit that I'll never be able to remember the codes and letter representations to describe that again.

I think I'll stick with Maurice Chevalier's spoken example.

Works for me.

It'll be interesting to hear more about how you've encountered it
Not for the first time, I "extrapolated" from French, then looked it up in the OED. It is interesting to realize that this word, contrary to its derivatives, apparently suffered "extinction", driven out by management.

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It'll be interesting to hear more about how you've encountered it
Not for the first time, I "extrapolated" from French, then looked it up in the OED. It is interesting to realize that this word, contrary to its derivatives, apparently suffered "extinction", driven out by management.

Yeah, today's management calls this mass extinction of french words - verbal downsizing; this process goes on irrevocably and sublimatively.

Sorta like a bloodless ethnic cleansing

I think I'll stick with Maurice Chevalier's spoken example.

"Sank Heaven for leetel gehrls ..."

Now, now, you know he wouldn't have said heaven...more like heh-von

I loved his duet with Hermione Gingold in that movie. They sang "I remember it well", he with roguish heart and she, chiding smilingly with fondness. They played it well.