Apparently, he had been up rather late the night before, and slept only a few hours before having to wake up yet again.  And so, he wrote: “j’aurais peut être dû piquer une tête à la pistache ce matin.”

This left me diving for my dictionary, followed by my Le Robert Expressions and Locutions. 

piquer une tête can mean to dive into something (”plonger”).  Yet “tête à la pistache” came up with nothing, nor did “pistache” by itself (other than the standard meaning of “pistachio”).  I thought perhaps “pistache” could be slang for coffee or something of the sort, but no such luck.

And so, all I can do is dive blindly into the (sparse) crowd of 3000words readers and hope that someone can help me here, as I’m left scratching my (pistachio?) noggin.

Update: David got up and set me straight.  “Pistache” is apparently something you say for “piscine” (swimming pool) in those so-cool preteen years.  Whod’ve thunk it?

élagage (m)

French definition:  “action d’élaguer” [so naturally, I turn to élaguer].  élaguer “1. Couper les branches inutiles ou nuisibles d’un arbre.  2. Fig. Supprimer ce qui est superflu dans une phrase, un texte, une oeuvre littéraire.”

So the verb élaguer’s definition translates to: “1. To cut unnecessary or bothersome branches off a tree. 2. Fig. To delete what is unnecessary in a phrase, text, or literary work.”

Therefore, élagage is the act of pruning, which I probably would’ve gotten were the workers actually present, but it was only 2:45pm, and they hadn’t yet gotten back from their leisurely French lunch, apparently!

French definition: 1. Enduire d’un badigeon. Peintre qui badigeonne un mur (ou badigeonneur (m)) (Of course, this leads me to: badigeon (m) enduit à la chaux dont on revêt les murs) 2. Enduire (une partie du corps) d’une préparation pharmaceutique. Se badigeonner la gorge au bleu de méthylène.

Translation of said definition: 1. Further research shows that this is a very specific term, actually, because it means to whitewash outside walls or to distemper inside walls (it can also be used to describe painting something roughly). 2. to medically paint something (ie. a throat) with an ointment.

Now, the problem is that neither definition actually deals with the case in hand (ie. what I need to do with my eggplants), but it’s easy to extrapolate from these definitions. Further research (and discussion with colleagues) shows that this term has evolved into one that can be used in cooking. So what do I need to do with my eggplants? Brush them!

My colleague also used the terms “enduire” and “recouvrir” in his attempts to describe what this word means.

sachem

French dictionary definition: “Chacun des chefs élus par les diverses familles ou lignées dans un village amérindien, leur ensemble formant le conseil du village.”

Translation of that definition: “Each of the chiefs elected by the different families lines of descent in a Native American village who make up the village council.”

I was surprised to learn that the term exists in English, especially after living in an area where we our school field trips consisted of visiting village ruins and the Heard Museum on multiple occasions.  However, thanks to dictionary.com, I learned that apparently the term doesn’t apply to all Native American tribes, only certain ones.  Elementary school education, don’t fail me now!

French definition: “Prière en latin qui commence par les mots Pater noster - ‘Notre Père’”.
Which means: “Latin prayer which starts by the words Pater noster - ‘Our Father’”.

According to the bilingual dictionary, in English we keep the full latin term “paternoster”. However, it also offers a second meaning for “pater” that the unilingual dictionary doesn’t, citing it as a slang term for “old man” (in the father-related meaning, “yeah, my old man…”).

I like it.

French definition: “1. Mettre un vêtement sur son dos, sur soi. 2. Fig. Assumer la responsabilité de. 3. Donner une forme arrondie au dos d’un livre.”

Which translates to “1. Have clothes on one’s back, oneself. 2. Fig. To take responsibility for. 3. Give a rounded form to the back of a book.”

The first sense could be translated as “to put on” or “to wear”. The second, which is the one in which I was personally interested, is translated by “to take on” by my Hachette-Oxford. And the third would be “to back” (I bet you knew that, didn’t you Katia?).

French definition: “Nom que les médecins homéopathes donnent à la médecine officielle moderne.”
Which translates to: “Name that homeopathic doctors give to traditional modern medicine.”

So basically, “allopathie” is the opposite of “homeopathie”. It, naturally, exists in English with just a slight change in spelling: “allopathy”.

French definition: “Dans la mythologie hindoue, déesse inférieure, représentée en musicienne ou en danseuse.”
Translation of said definition: “In Hindu mythology, inferior goddess, depicted as a musician or dancer.”

The term is a loan word from Hindi which has been accepted in French, yet not in English. However, while it lists in French dictionaries, it doesn’t in bilingual ones, leaving me lost in terms of any attempt at a translation. Any suggestions?

domino (m)

French definition: “Vêtement ample à capuchon porté dans les bals masqués; personne qui porte ce costume.”
Translated definition: “Ample, hooded item of clothing worn to masked balls; person who wears such a costume.”

Imagine my disappointment when I found out that this was, in fact, also called a “domino” in English. I probably would have just called it a “cloak” or a “hooded cape”.

Perhaps I could use a sister site for my English vocabulary…

French definition: “Petite branche, division d’une branche d’arbre.”
English translation of the definition: “Small branch, division of a tree branch.”

It seemed to me that logically, the English equivalent would be “twig”, but no! “Twig” translates to “une brindille”; the bilingual dictionary assures me that the translation of “rameau” is, in fact, “branch”. I guess the French population is more concerned with tree branch sizes than the English-speaking one!