Something that keeps happening: I look up a french word, and find I have no clue about the english word.
Example, in Le Monde's complaint today about the long-running construction at many significant monuments, this sentence appears: L'édifice de Carlu, Boileau et Azéma abrite toujours les plâtres du Musée des monuments français, naguère fréquenté par des couples romantiques et quelques promeneurs neurasthéniques.
It means, roughly: The building by Carlu, Boileau and Azéma still shelters the plasters of the Museum of French Monuments, once frequented by romantic couples and some neurasthénique passersby.
Neurasthénique? Well the dictionary gives us this: "neurasthenic". Huh? Well, the term is apparently an archaic term from psychoanalysis, invented by Beard and borrowed/ruined by Freud. I think it roughly means "crazy", though should mean more precisely a condition of lassitude, worry, distraction, and hypochondria.
But it happens all the time, believe me. They're constantly naming peculiar architectural elements (like "a cymase") or whatever else. They also say "ignoble" a lot, which means exactly the same thing in English but knowing it would have ensured better results on the SAT.
Posted by amol at August 16, 2002 01:06 PM