Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Board game

Monday night, one of my colleague introduced us to the joy of german style board game. We play Carcassonne, a very pleasant game.

Things learned
1. I always thought that the answer : "No they've fallen all by themselves" to the question "Have you been to the haircut ?" was part of one Jean Marie Bigard (a fench stand-up comedian, quite popular) show... but it's not, in his monologue called "les expressions" where he fight against stupid question. Like when you go to a restaurant, in france, the waiter ask you if you are here to have dinner.... No I was just planning to play tennis... etc...

2. "Igname" is the french word for Yam, a species of vegetables (cultivated in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania). And it can be used as a symbol, in some culture (Papou)
Not to be confused with :
-Imam which is an religious leader.
-Iguane [FR] (iguana in english).

Question not answered
Origin of the Castres city's name, and difference with the origin of the french world: "castrer" and what is the ethymologic link with "Castor" (Beaver in english)

Update on this question (and back to French ):
Un blog amusant a ce propos: Langue sauce piquante, le blog des correcteurs du monde.
Et une idee fantastique de la bibliotheque nationale (BNF), la mise en ligne de centaines d'ouvrages anciens http://gallica.bnf.fr/

CASTRES (Tarn) Le nom de la ville vient du mot latin castrum qui signifie "place fortifiée".
Les mots "chaste", "incestueux" et "castré" ont la même racine indo européenne kes- (séparer)
kes- couper, séparer
--> lat. castrare (castrer)
--> lat. castrum, place fortifiée (peut-être "place séparée")
--> lat. castus : chaste (séparé, pur, sans fautes), inceste, incestueux (non chaste), caste
Source http://babel.lexilogos.com/

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