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#169648 08/22/07 09:44 AM
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Hydra Offline OP
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Quote:
introuvable adjective impossible to find; "the book is practically introuvable".


Two questions: What is the etymology of this word? Is there another, less obscure word for "unfindable" ?

Edit: Must be somehow connected to (treasure) trove.

Quote:
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Anglo-Norman French tresor trove, literally ‘found treasure.’

Last edited by Hydra; 08/22/07 09:46 AM.
Hydra #169649 08/22/07 10:47 AM
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(Treasure) trove is from Anglo-Norman tresor trove, the second half of the phrase is from trover 'to compose, invent, find' (it's also a legal term in English). It might be from Old Provencal trobar (which yields troubador) which in turn is usually connected with Vulgar Latin tropo (tropare) from Latin tropus 'song' from Greek τροπος (tropos) 'figure of speech, (lit.) turn' (from τρεπειν (trpein 'to turn', cf. apotropaic, heliotrope, entropy). Latin inventio from invenio (invenire) 'to find, (lit.) come upon'.

Last edited by zmjezhd; 08/22/07 10:48 AM.

Ceci n'est pas un seing.
zmjezhd #169650 08/22/07 12:12 PM
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Unfindable, undiscoverable; spec. of books. Also as n. [OED2]

actually a French word, I think the English word more commonly used by American booksellers is, well, unfindable.

in other contexts, perhaps unattainable.

-joe (introvenient) friday

Hydra #169651 08/22/07 12:22 PM
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Trouver is "to find", in French.
Some terms I can think of are: lost; secreted away; gone for good; and too well hidden. Or, in tsuwm's bookseller-type sense, perhaps "unlocatable"; "untraceable".


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