New Vocabulary!

Although there is an exclamation mark in the title, it’s not because I’ve learned any new swear words or crude expressions—yet. I have however learned lots of good things, some of which are included below.

tatiner : to spread [EDIT : TARTINER]
This is a food word, which I learned because some of the cheese packages have a cow or block of cheese saying “Tatinez-moi!”, the equivalent of the English advertising phrase “I’m spreadable!” Both are pretty weird, if you think about it.

traiteur : caterer
Tara and I puzzled over this one for a few days as we’ve been walking around the city—“The Traitor Pub? They’re going to betray the butter mob against the cheese brigands? What?” Turns out many places have good food which you can also buy prepared in biggish quantities for your family dinner.

lisse et soyeux : smooth and silky
Two words which sound like their meanings ; seen on a bottle of conditioner, or « après-shampooing ».

hebdomadaire : weekly
I’m going to start using the English equivalent of this one—so fun to say! When I first saw it, it reminded me of the name of some primordial monster or folk tale creature. (Don’t you think so, Diana?)

dentelle : lace
I had to look this up because a professor used it in class (“Sacrements d’initiation” with the mean Prof. Wagner). As an example of the effect of ritual, he was describing the arrival of important dignitaries to a university ceremony—how they walked so solemnly, and spoke slowly, and also how they dressed. In describing one man, he said that he was “covered and covered in dentelle”, motioning around his throat and the front of his shirt. The first thing I thought of was teeth; I wondered if it was a French tradition for especially important university folks to wear the teeth of their conquered, dejected, failing students, in which case I definitely should have studied in Spain. Luckily, it isn’t. They just like lace.