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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Do you think the humor is too earthy for him?
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Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
You both know, of course, that this only ENCOURAGES him.
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Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
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'Retrenched' is the present day equivalent of 'laid off' throughout Australia. I've never heard of 'riffing' or being 'riffed'.
Throughout my 7 years in the people business (recruitment, outplacement), it was critical to stress the differences between retrenchment and redundancy. There is strong potential to erode people's self esteem if these words aren't used carefully. Frinstance, recent retrenchees (still trying to cope with the emotion of the situation) would often say, "I've been made redundant". This can become a process of negative affirmation unless nipped in the bud so we were trained to chime in immediately with, "No, you haven't been made redundant. YOU aren't redundant, you have been retrenched. Your previous POSITION has been made redundant". People seemed to appreciate the sentiment.
stales
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Outplacement??
At my hospital the former Human Resources is now Employee Engagement. Makes me wonder if the retrenchment process is going to be called "disengagement".
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Retrenchement (spelled retranchement in French) means to reduce a portion off off or to supress a portion of something.
This is in addition to the military use. However in French, a retrenchement is not only a trench - or hole in the ground - it is any obstacle behind which one takes refuge. So you can have a retrenchement made of trees, bricks, wood or sandbags and a "retranchement creusé" (the trench).
There is also the French expression "pousser quelqu'un à son dernier retranchement" or "push somebody to his last retrenchement," which means pushing somebody to the end by refuting his ultimate arguments.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Bel, that sounds very much the same as revetment (which also comes from the French of course):
revetment
• noun 1 a retaining wall or facing of masonry, supporting or protecting a rampart, wall, etc. 2 a barricade of earth or sandbags providing protection from blast or to prevent aircraft from overrunning when landing.
— ORIGIN French revêtement, from Latin revestire ‘reclothe’.
I guess there are subtleties here!
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Hmmm. I've never heard that use for revêtement.
I looked it up in my Multi Québec (a dictionary that has Québec French) and my Larousse (a dictionary that has France French) and that definition does not appear.
Mind, you my Larousse is the Petit (small) Larousse with only some 100,000 words so it could be simply missing that definition. Where did you find it?
In Québec, revêtement, is an outercovering, or something you put over something else. For example, a wood floor will have a revêtment of hard laquer to keep it from getting damaged. A cake will have a revêtment of icing and a banana a revêtement of yellow peel. The cover you put over your umbrella is a revêtement.
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
...just backing dxb up on this one...
Definition 2 ("a barricade of earth or sandbags providing protection...") was the context in which I first heard the word used. Specifically, in relation to the earth mounds forward of warfare trenches.
Off the top of my head, I believe the term has come to be used in the english speaking world to mean any defensive barrier.
stales
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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A long, long time ago, when I stared at surveillance photographs of other nations' air fields, we referred to an area where aircraft were "parked" alongside a runway, surrounded on three sides by earthworks, sometimes fortified with concrete or other materials, as a revetment.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I've never heard that use for revêtement.
Words are like our children, belM. We try to bring them up right, teach them to do good and they grow up, use expressions like "Swell" and "So's your old man" and buckle their knickerbockers below the knee. In other words, belM, "How ya gonna keep 'em down in Paree after they've seen the farm?"
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