September 27, 2003
 Le mot juste....
....The right word!
Ever wondered what the word hors d'oeuvre means in French? Well, I'll tell you.
It is composed of three words. The first part: hors' meaning 'apart ', 'away from', or 'except'. The second part: 'de' meaning 'of'. The third part: 'oeuvre' means 'work'. This literally has to with the main focus of the meal preparation and the time that one spends preparing it. You see, the French view preparing and cooking as an art in which the final product is a 'work of art', so to speak. So, let's put it all together now:
Hors .... apart
De .... from
Oeuvre .... work
Literally it means the food that is served apart from and before the main work or the main course.
In English when we are hanging out with our buddies we call the little morsels 'appetizers,' but when we dine out with the people we want to impress, we might refer to the very same morsels of food as 'hors d'oeuvres.'
The third part of this word is also found in the word 'chef d'oeuvre'. Can you guess the meaning of this word? Well, 'chef' means 'main' or 'leader' (head). So, if someone were to refer to your last etchings and doodling in French class as 'chef d'oeuvre', they would be calling your creation a 'main piece of work' (art). That might put you right up there with the best — Seurat, Degas, or even Monet!
Gauche in French means 'left' as in 'turn left'. From French the word has come to have a meaning in English as 'socially awkward' as in 'He made a gauche remark,' or 'not very skilled' as in "Her carving technique is very gauche.
Le mot juste will be devoted to the development of vocabulary skills. Please visit often for tips and tricks to help you memorize and recall vocabulary. You might also be treated to an interesting twist on the special meaning of certain words.
Plans are to publish a Word of the Week. Students who use the word in their speaking or writing (and use it correctly) will earn another Bonus Point.
*This is the first step toward THE One World Language.
Step Sixty-One: *The Nominative Objective objects vociferously.
Planète Française is ruled by Dr. Todd Alden Marshall, professor of Russian and Slavic Linguistics at the University of Central Arkansas. An independent entity in the CornDancer consortium of planets, Planète Française is dedicated to the study and exploration of the French language. CornDancer is a developmental website for the mind and spirit maintained by webmistress Freddie A. Bowles of the Planet Earth. Submissions are invited.
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