Re: OT: Humor: was Re: Profiles (WAS: Re: Conlang-to-body-shape connections)

En réponse à Pablo David Flores :

>Isn't it used in the figurative sense? Spanish has "defenestrar"
>as a synonym for "destroying someone's career" or "dismiss
>and humiliate publicly" and so on (especially referring to
>politicians).
No, French never uses this word in a figurative sense. It's *only* used in
the concrete sense. But hey, we French've never had a tradition of throwing
people from the windows. We rather cut heads ;))) . And indeed, "lui couper
la tête" ("to behead him/her", as it happens, the expression in this form
is epicene :) ) can sometimes be used to mean "destroy one's career". But
it's not common.

>On French "défenestrer", why didn't the word lose the /s/
>like "fenêtre"? Is it a matter of stress?
No, rather a matter that the term is considered learned, and as such the
orthography decided of the pronunciation instead of vice versa.


Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.

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