Sunday, November 30, 2008

I call it a Chinamans hat



Be careful where you put your circumflex. I knew that ^ indicated a missing s. For example forêt = forest. But I didn't realise that in the 18th century there was a paper tax and so it was used on other words too.

Link to wikipedia.

Specifically, the letters "ugh" were replaced when they were silent in the most common words, e.g., "thô" for "though", "thorô" for "thorough", and "brôt" for "brought".

So this morning when I saw the word tache I thought oh that means stains. However it made no sense because the sentence read.

They shared out the stains!!! Then I discovered tache with a circumflex tâche.
They shared out the tasks!!

Link to tache/ tâche here.

I love taking pictures of the trees with the light playing on the leaves, so they have a dappled effect tacheté.




I called this one magical place.

11 comments:

Henry the Dog said...

Just discovered your blogsites and your photos are wonderful. My mum will love them - she's big on trees and stuff, especially in the autumn - she gets excited about colourful leaves - I don't get it myself, but as long as she's happy, I am:)

Blu said...

Henry thanks for dropping by. Glad your Mum loves trees, they are useful for our planet, and great to sniff if you are a dog.

French Fancy... said...

Those trees are like African camouflage.

You're really getting into this French etymology lark, sounds interesting.

wave to Henry

Blu said...

Well I couldnt read untill I was eight ans then I couldnt stop reading. But since trying to learn some French I find myself constantly finding out more and more stories behind words.

mixedabilityME said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mixedabilityME said...

'Dappled' is one of my favourite words.Gerald Manley Hopkins uses it in his poem 'The Windhover'.............
"dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon"........celebrating an element of nature-the bird. Every time you post your wonderful pictures, Blu, that's what you do. :))

bindu said...

The leaf shadows in the second picture are so charming!

French Fancy... said...

Hello blu one - there is an award for you if you would like to pop over and collect it

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

Hi, Blu -- thanks for stopping by at my place. Congrats on the award too.

I had no idea what the logic was behind the circumflex! How interesting. Until I read your explanation, all I could tell was that it denoted a slightly different pronunciation of some of the letters it appears over.

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