In taking one of my many, many breaks from studying coordination chem (I seem to be able to study properly only at school), I had what I call a “word moment.”
So we all know that Notredame cathedral is famous, yadda yadda yadda. What I didn’t realize until about ten minutes ago is that Notredame comes from “notre dame” – Our Lady.
Can’t believe I didn’t see this until now. How very lame of me. :tongue:
Speaking of little French things, it pays to know French… at least slightly. I had someone ask me once, “What is a faux?”
“Er,” I said, “it’s French for ‘fake’.”
“… It’s not some kind of animal?” The person in question had bid on an eBay auction for a faux fur jacket, and evidently she thought “faux” was a variant spelling of “fox” or something.
Then there was the Frenchie who explained “faux pas” as coming from “il faut pas,” which makes some sense but doesn’t fit with the spelling. One does wonder, though, if that was the original etmyology of the term.