Author Topic: Caption it # 1689 (Read 4274 times)

Quote from: hellymedic on 17 May, 2015, 12:21:15 pm

Some pun there!
Is that painting Renoir or Caillebotte?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir,_Le_Moulin_de_la_Galette.jpg

Thanks!
The Caillebotte with which I am most familiar is unsurprisingly this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street%3B_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/1024px-Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street%3B_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
which featured on a £1 mouse mat I bought from Woolworth's

The French Tandem · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 May, 2015, 06:14:01 pm »

Quote from: hellymedic on 17 May, 2015, 01:35:25 pm

The Caillebotte with which I am most familiar is unsurprisingly this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street%3B_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/1024px-Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street%3B_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
which featured on a £1 mouse mat I bought from Woolworth's

What a wonderful view of Paris without all those bloody cars

T42 · « **Reply #10 on:** 18 May, 2015, 09:43:22 pm »

Quote from: hellymedic on 17 May, 2015, 01:35:25 pm

Quote from: Wowbagger on 17 May, 2015, 01:01:09 pm
Quote from: hellymedic on 17 May, 2015, 12:21:15 pm

Some pun there!
Is that painting Renoir or Caillebotte?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir,_Le_Moulin_de_la_Galette.jpg

Thanks!
The Caillebotte with which I am most familiar is unsurprisingly this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street%3B_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/1024px-Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street%3B_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
which featured on a £1 mouse mat I bought from Woolworth's

Surely the fulfilment of Caillebotte's most cherished ambition.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #11 on:** 18 May, 2015, 10:19:03 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 17 May, 2015, 09:35:45 am

Quote from: Wowbagger on 16 May, 2015, 11:28:02 pm
Renoir keeps falling on my head.

Mais je caille dans ces bottes.

I'm hesitating to upbraid one with a much greater experience than I of spoken French, but I would have thought that in that context, the verb would have been reflexive, se cailler, n'est-ce pas? Or would that be used in "Mes pieds se caillent dans ces bottes"?

Jon P · « **Reply #12 on:** 19 May, 2015, 11:53:18 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 18 May, 2015, 10:19:03 pm

Quote from: T42 on 17 May, 2015, 09:35:45 am
Quote from: Wowbagger on 16 May, 2015, 11:28:02 pm
Renoir keeps falling on my head.

Mais je caille dans ces bottes.
I'm hesitating to upbraid one with a much greater experience than I of spoken French, but I would have thought that in that context, the verb would have been reflexive, se cailler, n'est-ce pas? Or would that be used in "Mes pieds se caillent dans ces bottes"?

Never seen that word before - but could it (also) be "je me caille les (aux) pieds" ? As in "Je me caille aux couillons comme un singe en cuivre" ?

T42 · « **Reply #13 on:** 20 May, 2015, 08:17:24 am »

M. Le Pédant prend la parole:

On se les caille is understood to imply testicles. The French have no preconceived ideas re brass monkeys (brass being laiton but brass musical instruments being cuivres (go figure)).

In slang, a testicle is a couille, a couillon is an idiot.

Cailler really means to clot. A blood clot is a caillot. A bloody clot is a sacré couillon.

You could say je me caille aux pieds but j'ai les pieds qui caillent would be more usual....................(1)

By the usual fowl tricks of linguistic evolution, a caille is also a quail of the bird persuasion. "My feet are quailing" would not be a good translation of (1).

BTW, did you notice in the Wiki article that Caillebotte once owned the Renoir in question? I'd no idea of that when I perpetrated my pun.

meddyg · « **Reply #14 on:** 20 May, 2015, 09:05:03 am »

one word suggests another and since we're evolving into French grammar
you'll be delighted to know that though the French don't have Spoonerisms they do have calembours
thus

une cuvette de bouillon = a bowl of soup
une buvette de couillon = a refreshment room full of bollocks (~idiots maybe)

couillon - bollocks (most Americans will know the Spanish term 'cojones' which is cognate)
I'll tell you in a minute the French connection of the photo !

meddyg · « **Reply #15 on:** 20 May, 2015, 09:31:55 am »

We were in a gite in Josselin central Brittany for a week as a wedding anniversary treat, having been there for honeymoon.

We'd forgotten our umbrella and the patron(ne) obviously felt this was the best way to get it back to us !

And some great waymarked 'vélo-promenades' around there

T42 · « **Reply #16 on:** 20 May, 2015, 09:43:17 am »

Quote from: meddyg on 20 May, 2015, 09:05:03 am

one word suggests another and since we're evolving into French grammar
you'll be delighted to know that though the French don't have Spoonerisms they do have calembours
thus

une cuvette de bouillon = a bowl of soup
une buvette de couillon = a refreshment room full of bollocks (~idiots maybe)

couillon - bollocks (most Americans will know the Spanish term 'cojones' which is cognate)
I'll tell you in a minute the French connection of the photo !

Have a go at

Les philanthropies de l'ouvrier charpentier.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #17 on:** 20 May, 2015, 11:05:15 am »

Multilingual punning and smut! I love this place.

The French Tandem · « **Reply #18 on:** 20 May, 2015, 12:13:29 pm »

Quote from: meddyg on 20 May, 2015, 09:05:03 am

one word suggests another and since we're evolving into French grammar
you'll be delighted to know that though the French don't have Spoonerisms they do have calembours
thus

une cuvette de bouillon = a bowl of soup
une buvette de couillon = a refreshment room full of bollocks (~idiots maybe)

[pedant]
This is not a calembour, but a contrepèterie.
[/pedant]

Jon P · « **Reply #19 on:** 20 May, 2015, 12:24:54 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 20 May, 2015, 08:17:24 am

M. Le Pédant prend la parole:

On se les caille is understood to imply testicles. The French have no preconceived ideas re brass monkeys (brass being laiton but brass musical instruments being cuivres (go figure)).

In slang, a testicle is a couille, a couillon is an idiot.

Cailler really means to clot. A blood clot is a caillot. A bloody clot is a sacré couillon.

You could say je me caille aux pieds but j'ai les pieds qui caillent would be more usual....................(1)

By the usual fowl tricks of linguistic evolution, a caille is also a quail of the bird persuasion. "My feet are quailing" would not be a good translation of (1).

BTW, did you notice in the Wiki article that Caillebotte once owned the Renoir in question? I'd no idea of that when I perpetrated my pun.

Thanks very much - very informative.

meddyg · « **Reply #20 on:** 20 May, 2015, 05:31:16 pm »

Quote

Have a go at

Les philanthropies de l'ouvrier charpentier.

OK I've been trying since this morning !
No passing Frogs to help till the weekend...
so put me out of my misery!

Wowbagger · « **Reply #21 on:** 20 May, 2015, 08:14:13 pm »

Well, literally, it is "The philanthropies of the carpenter" but that doesn't give me any links to other stuff.

The French Tandem · « **Reply #22 on:** 21 May, 2015, 05:43:09 am »

The clue is in mixing the order of the sounds it produces when you say it aloud (in french). Translating in another language won't help.

If you really give up:

(click to show/hide)

Jon P · « **Reply #23 on:** 21 May, 2015, 06:51:36 am »

Quote from: meddyg on 20 May, 2015, 09:05:03 am

couillon - bollocks (most Americans will know the Spanish term 'cojones' which is cognate)
I'll tell you in a minute the French connection of the photo !

Also in Elizabethan English, cullions, as in Shakespeare -

H5 III.ii.21   [Fluellen to all] Avaunt, you cullions!
2H6 I.iii.38   [Queen to Petitioners] Away, base cullions!
TS IV.ii.20   [Hortensio as Licio to Tranio as Lucentio, of Bianca courting Lucentio as Cambio] such a one as ... makes a god of such a cullion

ie also meaning, idiot, lowlife ...

T42 · « **Reply #24 on:** 21 May, 2015, 07:33:21 am »

Quote from: The French Tandem on 20 May, 2015, 12:13:29 pm

Quote from: meddyg on 20 May, 2015, 09:05:03 am
one word suggests another and since we're evolving into French grammar
you'll be delighted to know that though the French don't have Spoonerisms they do have calembours
thus

une cuvette de bouillon = a bowl of soup
une buvette de couillon = a refreshment room full of bollocks (~idiots maybe)

[pedant]
This is not a calembour, but a contrepèterie.
[/pedant]

Right enough, didn't notice that. A pet being a fart and contrepèterie meaning, therefore, counterfarting. A derivative of pet exists in English as petard. "Hoisted by his own petard" might then mean "lifted by his own fart".

Lord knows what the French make of a pet shop.

Joseph Pujol, "le Pétomane", used to give concerts.

The word can also mean "break", so on PBP you can tell the mechanic "le câble a pété" when your gears fail.