Well after fighting many viruses I finally came down with a healthy head cold. What is comforting is that to have a head cold you must have a head.
Now in French, a head cold is "un rhume de cerveau". To have "un rhume de cerveau" you must have a brain.
Hence I'm safe in both our official languages. Is not that nice?
.....To have "un rhume de cerveau" you must have a brain.....
RépondreSupprimerUnlike one's head which can be seen by all, one's brain is normally seen by no-one, unless by a surgeon during a brain operation.
Therefore when one says one has a brain, this is normally merely an assumption.
There have been clever people who were discovered to have no brain, as *this piece* explains.
Nicely put but I still believe that I have a brain or whatever substitutes for it.
RépondreSupprimerHow do you get a "healthy" head cold?
RépondreSupprimerThe cold is healthy, I am not as long as the cold is healthy.
RépondreSupprimerIs this really the verb "to sneeze" in French: éternuer?
RépondreSupprimerIt sounds so serious.
Yes Jenny, to sneeze, in French, is "éternuer", but why does it sound so serious to you? Children say "atchoumer" mimicking the sound made by "un éternuement". That would sound much less serious, no?
RépondreSupprimerAh, un peu de francais, a sneeze, un piccolo mal di testa, and voila', life is good again. Easy there! Stay warm.
RépondreSupprimerIn English snuff and similar substances which induce sneezing are called "sternutatories." I see the etymological commonality with "eternuer."
RépondreSupprimerSame etymology: latin sternutare
RépondreSupprimerI learned the word originally decades back from reading Robert Graves' wonderful story "He went out to buy a rhine." I can't find the text of it online anywhere, though it's about the age when you might expect to see something made public in Google books. "Errhine," Greek root, same meaning.
RépondreSupprimerNow tell me why a guy would go out to by a nose, unless he did not have one to begin with. A plastic surgeon would take care of that...I guess.
RépondreSupprimerHe was buying an "errhine," another word for a "sternutatory," and his apparent suicide was explained when someone uncovered his plan to find out what would happen if you sneezed and held your mouth resolutely closed. He blew himself out into the street through the third-storey French doors.
RépondreSupprimer"Going out to Buy A Rhine" was his landlady's malaprop at the inquest. Graves was a very funny storyteller in addition to his poetry. You would get a chuckle from his "Avocado Pears" (it plays on ignorance of the French language).
Wel you have taught me something today. Thank you.
RépondreSupprimerÀ VOTRE SANTÉ.
RépondreSupprimeri am glad you have a brain within a head :)
Sledpress, I must now read this Graves story. Excellent! It surely owes its existence to Gogol's spectacular little gem THE NOSE.
RépondreSupprimerYes, Paul, I like the children's version!
Having a cold is not fun, in either official language.
RépondreSupprimerPauvre Paul; ce n'est par juste! Peut-être du rhum tu aiderait avec ta rhume.
Du rhum pour soigner mon rhume? Amusing pun...but I prefer a good single malt scotch.
RépondreSupprimerSledpress I'm glad you like children's version of some books, don't we all have somewhere deep inside a child lurking.
Thanks for your acceptance of poor little me having a brain within a head, I feel better already.
What is comforting is that to have a head cold you must have a head... To have "un rhume de cerveau" you must have a brain
RépondreSupprimerStrange. Here we only have a cold, un raffreddore. :-)
A cold is accompanied by some coughing and a sore throat; a head cold presents some coughing, blocked sinuses and a sore throat. If you have these, plus a fever, plus aching muscles, you have the flu.
RépondreSupprimerIf treated all these will go away in 14 days, if untreated they will go away in two weeks.
If you have a chill or un "refroidissement", go inside and have a hot drink, all will be fine again.
Whoops, I did not say anything about the children's version of anything!
RépondreSupprimerAnd Graves is nothing at all like Gogol. He is arch and immediate, and not at all surreal.
I do, as it happens, like many books written for children. But then I think of the children's author cited by C. S. Lewis -- if only I could remember the name -- who stated once that he had never met a child and never wished to. Lucky man...
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RépondreSupprimerSledpress, Jenny referred to children's versions. Sorry for the mix up. I hope you did not get a rash.
RépondreSupprimer:)
RépondreSupprimerSo I see even the Cheshire cat is now visiting me.
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