I bet you didnt know that

DEFTLEFTHAND

The recently departed Barbara Bush, nee Pierce, was a descendent of the 14th President of the United States. Franklin Pierce. Dem, 1853, 1857.

George W Bush is a distant cousin of John Kerry, the man he ran against in 2004.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Mountainsandh wrote: »

I can confirm that it is used. Also impasse and voie sans issue.

If I had to analyze that, I'd say cul-de-sac is more spoken/colloquial, impasse is the one used on addresses and road signs, and voie sans issue sounds more like official rules of the road speak.


The most unused French word that I can think of that is used here, is brunette.
We just say "brune". I don't think I ever used the word brunette back in France.

One whose meaning was distorted in the transition to English is "matinée".
It means morning in French, but is used for afternoon shows here

You aren’t going to be happy with the American use of entrée for their main meal.

Edit:

Given the thread here’s the explanation. Back when courses used to be bigger and more complex, a side dish was often offered before the main meal. The order was appetiser followed by the side dish as an entry to the main.

That was the second dish and so now the second dish is called the entrée in the US even though it is the main.

Edit2:

And (since we are here and I just looked it up) probably not surprisingly the word matinee comes from when there were 3 shows a day, the first in the morning.

thesandeman

Every member elected to the Scottish parliament is assigned a speices to be an ambassador of.
They don't know what they are getting until they're elected so one person can be looking after the welfare of Golden eagles while another can end up minding slugs.

Capt'n Midnight

thesandeman wrote: »

Every member elected to the Scottish parliament is assigned a speices to be an ambassador of.
They don't know what they are getting until they're elected so one person can be looking after the welfare of Golden eagles while another can end up minding slugs.

For a while the Scottish Tory could have been an ambassador of themselves as they were rarer than Giant Pandas in Scotland.

Mary Robinson - then Mary Bourke, appeared on University Challenge in 1966 for Trinity. Also on the team was David Norris. They were hammered by Somerville College, Oxford.

Cushtie

Getting back to the posts about the maggots on wounds etc. I'm sure I saw something a whlie back about an irish company who were developing surgical dressings that had maggots "built in". Or did I dream that!

Chancer3001

When the pyramids were being built mammoths still walked around the place

Oxford university is older than the Aztec empire

The 1967 outer space treaty forbids any one country from owning the moon

Franz Von Peppercorn

I’ve had drinks in pubs older than the Aztec empire. It was late Middle Ages.

stimpson

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

You aren’t going to be happy with the American use of entrée for their main meal.

Fecking Yanks and their poor grasp of French culinary terms. “Au Jus” literally means “with juice” and is used to describe a way of cooking meat in its own juices to intensify the flavour. In America they use Au Jus as an noun to describe a light sauce, so you might see a menu having a “Sandwich with Au Jus”, literally a “Sandwich with With Juice. Every time I watch an American program on the Food Channel I want to throw something at the telly.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

I’ve had drinks in pubs older than the Aztec empire. It was late Middle Ages.

True. It existed from 1430 to 1521. Many people seem to think it was pre historic.

Mountainsandh

stimpson wrote: »

Every time I watch an American program on the Food Channel I want to throw something at the telly.

Same here. Well I watch very little telly, but the mis-uses really annoy me !







In French Middle-Ages castles, the stairs are often narrow, and a right turning spiral.
These were defensive features : one man on his own would have been able to fight off an enemy on the stairs since they were narrow, and they turned right as, there being a majority of right handed people, the man coming down the stairs would have had the advantage over the guy coming up, provided that guy was also right handed.

Also, there is a fairly unique staircase in Chambord, said to be designed by Leonardo da Vinci (who was great buddies with Francois 1er). It's a double screw design, where two people could be coming up and going down at the same time.
https://files.cults3d.com/uploaders/384187/illustration-file/1471630757-22910-9486/Capture_d_e_cran_2016-08-19_a__20.16.53_large.png

Clos Lucé is the mansion in Amboise where Leonardo spent the last few years of his life. Also in Amboise was the castle of Francois 1er, and it is said that there was an underground passageway between the castle and the mansion, so Francois could visit Leonardo secretly. I think I saw mentioned in Clos Lucé that Leonardo got a bit annoyed at Francois for asking him to design military inventions (vehicles, weaponry...).
I highly recommend the visit of Le Clos Lucé, there are a range of Leonardo's inventions in the park like his water pump(s)... (the water goes up a coil/spiral when you turn the wheel)
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSgkXQZxNdI1aVN4DGV53oid6SS6IqI6p441ILctYLHHWsWtyJ6

tayto lover

Cushtie wrote: »

Getting back to the posts about the maggots on wounds etc. I'm sure I saw something a whlie back about an irish company who were developing surgical dressings that had maggots "built in". Or did I dream that!

Was it not leeches to clean a wound?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

tayto lover wrote: »

Was it not leeches to clean a wound?

Leeches are used as anticoagulants while maggots eat away dead of infected flesh in a would.

dxhound2005

stimpson wrote: »

Fecking Yanks and their poor grasp of French culinary terms. “Au Jus” literally means “with juice” and is used to describe a way of cooking meat in its own juices to intensify the flavour. In America they use Au Jus as an noun to describe a light sauce, so you might see a menu having a “Sandwich with Au Jus”, literally a “Sandwich with With Juice. Every time I watch an American program on the Food Channel I want to throw something at the telly.

That is just the way language develops. Sometimes mistakes become the new standard. The same is happening with A Lot. It is too late now to persuade a large section of the internet community that it is not Alot. Alot will soon enter our dictionaries as a new word.

I read that Au Jus is a trade name in America for a powdered flavouring to be mixed with water, so that explains the usage.

stimpson

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I read that Au Jus is a trade name in America for a powdered flavouring to be mixed with water, so that explains the usage.

You may think you are helping, but you’re just making it worse!

mzungu

Back in ancieent Greco-Roman times, a thermopolium was an establishment that sold ready made hot food. Not unlike our modern day take aways. One of the best preserved thermopolium's is the Thermopolium of Asellina in Pompeii.

Fourier

The Mexica (founders of the empire) and the related tribes, collectively the Aztecs, had arrived in Central Mexico from the north, so they had no idea about the original population centers in the region like Teotihuacan, thinking they were built by gods or giants.

New Home

stimpson wrote: »

You may think you are helping, but you’re just making it worse!

Lots of words that are borrowed from other languages are adapted and change their meaning, two that spring to mind immediately are galore and bimbo, for instance.

Tell me how

stimpson wrote:

Fecking Yanks and their poor grasp of French culinary terms. “Au Jus†literally means “with juice†and is used to describe a way of cooking meat in its own juices to intensify the flavour. In America they use Au Jus as an noun to describe a light sauce, so you might see a menu having a “Sandwich with Au Jusâ€, literally a “Sandwich with With Juice. Every time I watch an American program on the Food Channel I want to throw something at the telly.

The Major League Baseball team, the Los Angeles Angels translates as "the the angels angels".

dxhound2005

AIB Bank is Allied Irish Bank Bank.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

dxhound2005 wrote: »

AIB Bank is Allied Irish Bank Bank.

But they're not AIB Bank. They are AIB or Allied Irish Banks.

Note, it's Banks not Bank anyway.

Are Am Eye

dxhound2005 wrote: »

AIB Bank is Allied Irish Bank Bank.

In every branch is an AIB Bank, ATM Machine.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Are Am Eye wrote: »

In every branch is an AIB Bank, ATM Machine.

Where you enter a PIN Number?

dxhound2005

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

But they're not AIB Bank. They are AIB or Allied Irish Banks.

Note, it's Banks not Bank anyway.

In Dundalk it is AIB Bank.

https://aib.ie/branches/louth/dundalk

We recognise that your time is precious so at AIB Bank, Dundalk we offer....

Realt Dearg Sec

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

Are Am Eye wrote: »

In every branch is an AIB Bank, ATM Machine.

Where you enter a PIN Number?

There's a term for that: Redundant Acronym Syndrome. Or RAS Syndrome for short.

I learned this while studying at UCD Dublin.

dxhound2005

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

There's a term for that: Redundant Acronym Syndrome. Or RAS Syndrome for short.

I learned this while studying at UCD Dublin.

I see what you did there.

Realt Dearg Sec

Not my doing:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome

The UCD one was a big controversy when I was studying there because they released a new logo with UCD Dublin on it that got grammarians in a tizzy. But Ras syndrome has been widely recognised by people who study these things as being, in some circumstances, beneficial for communication. HIV virus, OPEC countries etc.

UCD was deliberately differentiating itself from other universities like University of California Davis so that it would be recognised better globally and on world rankings boards especially.

Wibbs

mzungu wrote: »

Back in ancieent Greco-Roman times, a thermopolium was an establishment that sold ready made hot food. Not unlike our modern day take aways. One of the best preserved thermopolium's is the Thermopolium of Asellina in Pompeii.

That handily shows the red colour found throughout Pompeii that became horribly fashionable soon after the discovery of the place. Pompeii Red was the in thing. Turns out it may have originally been Pompeii Yellow, but the heat and chemistry from the eruption and subsequent burial turned it red.

In other news... Before Vesuvius blew its top and smothered Pompeii, Romans didn't even have a word for volcano. They christened the phenomenon after Vulcan the Roman god of fire, furnaces and blacksmithing. The residents themselves saw no threat as it hadn't erupted for many centuries. Today Vesuvius sits there waiting and if it blows again...

Cordell

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

There's a term for that: Redundant Acronym Syndrome. Or RAS Syndrome for short.

I learned this while studying at UCD Dublin.

Studied at Department of Redundancy Department?

New Home

EDIT: Beaten to it. :P