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To celebrate this year’s Québec Winter Carnival, Carnaval de Québec, Jan 27 to Feb 12, 2012, to arrive in the province knowing some lively French-Canadian expressions, check out today's column or click on the linkbox to see dozens of pages of Quebecisms explained in English.
1.
Va pèter dans le trèfle.
‘go fart in the clover’; c’est-à-dire, piss off.
2.
Il lui manque des bardeaux.
He’s missing a few tiles.
3.
Reçu comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles.
‘Welcome as a dog in a bowling alley.’
4.
Avoir des bébites dans la tête
‘to have bugs in your head,’ to be a little crazy.
5.
La rondelle ne roule pas pour lui.
The puck isn’t going his way.
6.
Pas un pet de travers!
Apple pie order, literally ‘not a fart out of place.’
7.
Va donc pétaler dans les fleurs.
Go pick the petals off flowers, that is, buzz off.
8.
Baise-moué l’ail!
Kiss my ass; literally ‘kiss my garlic.’
9.
Avoir mal aux cheveux
To be so sodden with booze and hung-over on the morning after that you are having a ‘hair ache.’
10.
Mange-toi du pain blanc .
‘eat your white bread.’
Sometimes said in Québec French when a situation is only going to get worse. Enjoy what you have before you.
11.
Aussi faux que les diamants Canadiens.
‘Fake as Canadian diamonds.’ When Jacques Cartier returned to France in 1542 after a third voyage to the new world, he sailed home with barrels of rocks that he thought contained diamonds and gold. He was merely the first European to be fooled by those twinkling tricksters of geology: quartz and iron pyrite (fool’s gold). Continental French still has the expression. But, of course, it is no longer a valid comment, especially since the discovery of diamonds in Canada ’s northland.
‘to fart off your suspenders.’ To burst with pride.
13.
Grosse Corvette, p’tite quéquette
‘big car, little dick.’ Said in Québec about a guy who is always showing off his new car, and a completely appropriate squelch for an automotive braggart.
14.
Le diâble est aux vaches.
‘the devil’s in the cows.’ In Québec, it means the weather will change soon.
Click the bookcover below for a sample of the contents.
October 23, 2011
New review on Amazon.com of my book
Canadian Words and Sayings(paperback)
by WB Johnston
“True patriotism is rare. It’s not about flag-waving always - although a wee bit of flag-waving is fine! Casselman loves his country, his fellow Canadians, and words. Hard to say which he loves more. Fortunately we don’t have to choose.
This book is a labour (let’s spell it the Canadian way, eh?) of love. It is also a work of art. With careful scrutiny of language sources, it honours every single ethnic tradition from First Peoples to the most recent of immigrants in the rich melting pot of Canadian words and sayings. There are moments of insight and, the humour is rich.
I put this on my bookshelf next to Barry Lopez’ Common Ground.
As an American who fell in love with Alberta over forty years ago, this is finer with my breakfast than a dead Tim*!
Kudos, Mr. Casselman, you did us all proud.”
* (Casselman note) A dead Tim is a cup of coffee bought at a chain of Canadian coffee shops called Tim Horton’s, named after a deceased famous Canadian NHL hockey player. I heard the slang phrase on the campus of the University of Manitoba one chilly Winnipeg day.
This book is available online at Chapters/Indigo and Amazon. There are fine used copies for the low, low price of .01¢ ! Yikes! New copies are under 10 dollars. The author's royalty on copies costing one cent is minimal. Please remember that.
Jenni French of San Fancisco, California writes on her blog "My Corner of the Universe" for March 19, 2011:
Casselman, Bill. Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A World Lover's Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2010.
"I admit it: I'm a word nerd. I love words: weird words, long words, obscure words, funny words. This book is right up my alley. With chapters like "Nautical Words," "Creepy Words," and "Edible Words," I have enjoyed every page of this book.
And the author has quite a way with words, so I have found myself rereading many sentences in this book and slowing my progress through it.
My current favorite sentence is found in a discussion of dog hybrid breed names: "What a revolting concatenation of cutesiness and smarmy nomenclatorial treacle parading under the name of canine hybrid breed names" (19).
I'm sure I'll have another favorite sentence in a day or two.
This book is just that good and just that entertaining."
Author Bill Casselman replies: "Thanks, Jenni!"
Just a reminder that this book contains my ALL-NEW word esssays, none of which are available anywhere else in print or online.
----------------------------------------
A Great New Review of My Latest Book!
October 26, 2011
Welcome to the Enchanted Forest
By WB Johnston
This review is about Bill Casselman’s latest e-book about words: Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A Word Lover’s Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems (Kindle Edition)
“Wade Davis, lately of National Geographic, once described each living language as “an old-growth forest of the human spirit.” Once you decide to enter the kleptomaniacal woods of our mother tongue, what you need is more than a tour guide. This is no Disney-fied ‘keep-your-hands-inside-the-car-at all-times’, point A to point B, clear-cutting mining of language. You, here, are in the hands of Sir William of Cassel, a genuine shaman modestly posing as a simple lover of words.
In the best of the spiritual tradition, Bill is the shape-shifter who constantly leads you to all the places you need to find in your soul. Every page is a new country, an invitation to an excursion into the wonderland of rich connections with the myriad of sources of what so often we unthinkingly wield as a prosaic tool.
Pay absolutely no attention to anyone who tells you that this book is anything but pure gold. It’s simply not true, sadly, that all the world loves a lover. Particularly someone whose love is so boundless.
But Sir William is fearless. You don’t earn your keep as a medicine man if you have a thin skin. While I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could walk away from this book unmoved by its wit, its wisdom and the beautiful transparency by which the author celebrates the glorious romp of our almost unlimited linguistic exuberance, I have to sadly conclude that once in a while, you do meet someone who can’t see the forest for the trees, eh?
Read this book. Leave it on the sofa instead of the $%#!*$% TV remote. Maybe someone you care about will pick it up, even just for a moment, and fall in love with their heritage?
Leave it on your desk at work and trust that someone will riffle through it when you are out at lunch. Shamans are magicians of the highest order. The work of their hands and hearts is game-changing. Or, hey, put it on your Kindle and just feel comforted that you can wander back out into the forest with Bill even in the middle of a boring lecture.
Enjoy.”
Casselman replies: Thank you so much, Dr. J., for the kudos.
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Cindy Lapeña on her blog "Creativity Unlimited" of July 19 ,2011, writes:
Posted by mimrlith in 365 Things to Look Forward to.
Tags: 365 things to look forward to, books, reading
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19. Starting a book
To a certified bibliophile like me, a.k.a. bookworm, one of the most exciting things to look forward to is to start reading a new book. In fact, sometimes the prospect of starting to read a new book is so exciting that I have to hurry to finish the book I am currently reading, just so I can start a new one.
If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a book, especially if it promises to be a good one. Of course there are certain books I just won’t touch or be seen with, but at the risk of being hung by my thumbs by fans of such literature, I will not mention any genres in particular. . .
Seeing a book with a title that totally captivates me, like Where a Dobdob meets a Dikdik (yes, that is a book title!) has me so worked up, I just can’t wait to dive in. I imagine all sorts of deliciously fancifully outrageous words with a title like that. Is it obvious? I just love books on words. You won’t believe how many dictionaries I own. Or books on lexical oddities and other lexical explorations. Yes, I am a logophile of sorts. I love the new words I pick up from new books. I relish finding out the meanings of all manner of words and phrases and expressions. What could be more fun?"
(Replies author Bill Casselman: Please scroll to bottom of page or click here to link to a free seven-page preview of my new book, Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik.
“Mr Casselman,
I wanted to write to thank you for your thoroughly enjoyable [new] book. By background, I am a technologist practicing the somewhat arcane crafts of Information Security.”
David Gamey, Canada
Testimonial Email
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Dear Mr. Casselman,
A search for the origins of an improbable-looking word, paraprosdokian, led me to the first piece of your prose I have had the pleasure of reading, "The Bogus Word Paraprosdokian & Lazy Con Artists of Academe." I have just placed an order for Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik, Canadian Words & Sayings, and As The Canoe Tips, and will add more of your titles as I finish these.
I have just retired from a 40-plus year career in book publishing, the last thirty years spent as director/editor of a number of university presses, attempting to sort the genuine writers from the "Lazy Con Artists of Academe." Sad to say, the latter have so over-bred the former that I could no longer see the rare gem in the avalanches of offal that daily swamped my office and desk. I visited your website and spent far too long there; it was a pleasure to meet a real writer through his work.
. . . I revisited the paraprosdokian page, and have finally quit laughing again at “Casselman's Conclusion.” You were not unkind to the "profligate prof-lets." During my years as an acquisitions editor, in rejection letters I often quoted Prof. Moses Hadas, classicist at Columbia University, who wrote a young scholar in response to having been sent the prof-let's first book, "Thank you for sending me your book. I will waste no time reading it."
I know I will enjoy your books. Keep up the good work.
Thank you,
Luther Wilson
Director (Retired)
University of New Mexico Press, among others
Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day™ & Words of the World features thousands of entries about Canadian phrases, words, expressions, and folk sayings. Canadian French expressions, idioms and folk sayings are featured and explained in English. The latest, newest French Canadian slang is deciphered. Québécois joual phrases and jokes are explained in English. My newest, latest, unpublished word stories and studies appear here on this website. Canadian English is the focus but English spoken and written all over the world and throughout the history of the language interests me as well. Words of the World spotlights non-Canadian English words and their origins from languages all over the world and permits me to venture on etymological journeys well beyond the pleasant confines of my native Canada.
According to one web server log file analysis program,Webalizer, throughout 2011, so far, this website receives more than 138,000 hits per day. For Google Analytics numbers, see the top of this index page.
