{"id":30960,"date":"2018-12-18T05:30:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T04:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=30960"},"modified":"2018-12-16T23:42:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T22:42:36","slug":"french-vocabulary-the-spirit-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-vocabulary-the-spirit-of-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"French Vocabulary – The spirit of the season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news from France hasn’t been the best lately. As of this past weekend, les gilets jaunes<\/strong><\/a> are still protesting in the streets of Paris – despite concessions from the French government –\u00a0and of course there was the sad news out of Strasbourg of l’attaque du march\u00e9 de No\u00ebl<\/a><\/strong> (the attack of the Christmas market).<\/em>\u00a0But it is also\u00a0presque No\u00ebl<\/strong> (almost Christmas<\/em>) and the time seems right for something a little lighter.<\/p>\n

\"Un

Le sapin de Noel<\/strong> \/ Christmas tree (Photo by Craig Adderley from Pexels [CC0])<\/em><\/p><\/div>

First an update<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly as of this week, five people sont morts<\/strong> (have died) <\/em>as a result of the\u00a0fusillade \u00e0 Strasbourg<\/strong> (shooting in Strasbourg<\/em>). As a sign of their resilience though, the people of Strasbourg and les commercants\u00a0<\/strong>(the shopkeepers)\u00a0<\/em>have returned to the\u00a0march\u00e9. <\/strong>As this report from LCI<\/a> says “en depit des \u00e9v\u00e9nements du 11 d\u00e9cembre, les Strasbourgeois veulent vivre la magie de No\u00ebl”<\/strong> (despite the events of December 11, the residents of Strasbourg want to experience the magic of Christmas).<\/em><\/div><\/p>\n

The “spirit” of the season<\/p>\n

The French word\u00a0esprit<\/strong> can have many meanings. It can mean\u00a0mind, wit, <\/em>or spirit<\/em>. <\/em>And like the English word\u00a0spirit,<\/em>\u00a0esprit <\/strong>can refer to both a mental state and to a metaphysical state. Let’s look at some examples.<\/p>\n

Esprit<\/strong> as wit, state of mind, etc<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One of my all time favorite French expressions – which has also made its way into English – is\u00a0l’esprit de l’escalier<\/strong> (the wit of the staircase). <\/em>Attributed to the French philosopher and author of one of the first encyclopedias in French, Denis Diderot, the phrase refers to those times when you think of the perfect retort or witticism too late after a conversation to employ it. Didert wrote in his Paradoxe sur le com\u00e9dien<\/strong> (Paradox of the actor<\/em>):<\/p>\n

“L’homme sensible, comme moi, tout entier \u00e0 ce qu’on lui objecte, perd la t\u00eate et ne se retrouve qu’au bas de l’escalier”<\/strong> \/ A sensitive man like me, when overwhelmed by an attack, loses his head and only recovers himself (later) at the bottom of the stairs.<\/em>*<\/div>\n

Another\u00a0esprit\u00a0<\/strong>expression which has made its way into English is\u00a0esprit de corps.\u00a0<\/strong>Often used to refer to military groups,\u00a0esprit de corps <\/strong>(lit.\u00a0the spirit of the group<\/em>) refers to a feeling of comradery and mutual respect and support shared among a group of tightly bonded individuals sharing a common goal.<\/p>\n

Esprit <\/strong>as literal\u00a0spirit<\/em><\/p>\n

As we approach the Christmas season, it seems fitting to highlight\u00a0esprit\u00a0<\/strong>in the Catholic\/Christian tradition of the Holy Trinity of\u00a0le P\u00e8re, le Fils, et le Saint-Esprit<\/strong> (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost<\/em>).<\/p>\n

In the famous English novel\u00a0Un chant de No\u00ebl<\/strong> (A Christmas Carol),\u00a0<\/em>Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by\u00a0trois esprits<\/strong> (three spirits<\/em>) who attempt to lead him back to a more generous path in life\u00a0avant qu’il ne soit trop tard<\/strong> (before it is too late).<\/em><\/p>\n

* It is useful to remember that sitting rooms and other formal gathering spaces in older homes (particularly those of the well-to-do) were located upstairs such that guests would have to go down stairs to leave a gathering.
\n** I found this groovy little track<\/a> while researching\u00a0l’esprit de l’escalier.\u00a0<\/em>I don’t know anything about it or the artist, but it seems to capture the many dimensions of the word\u00a0esprit.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Un

The news from France hasn’t been the best lately. As of this past weekend, les gilets jaunes are still protesting in the streets of Paris – despite concessions from the French government –\u00a0and of course there was the sad news out of Strasbourg of l’attaque du march\u00e9 de No\u00ebl (the attack of the Christmas market).\u00a0But…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":30964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[2149,284,357,432,12514],"class_list":["post-30960","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary","tag-france","tag-free-french-lessons","tag-french-language","tag-french-vocabulary","tag-vocabulaire-francais"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30960"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30967,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30960\/revisions\/30967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}