This is an adjective that I've heard a lot lately. I had an idea what it meant and I was on the right track, but was wrong anyway. I thought it had to do with moisture (soggy, wet, drizzly) as in the weather (those words are mou, mouillé, bruineux).
What maussade really means is gloomy. So when the weather is maussade, it is often bruineux, and things get mouillé, and I confused the heck out of that.
The reason that I've heard the word maussade a lot lately is that the month of August was terribly cold and wet all over France. Un temps maussade, they said, was what August was this year. The aoûtiens, who take their vacations in the month of August, were said to be quite jealous of the juillettistes this year. July was sunny and hot.
What a maussade weather map! Go visit one of those partly sunny spots in the south!
ReplyDeleteI'd never noticed this word before--thanks for the vocab lesson.
Foggy here today.
Chris P
The word in English that comes into my mind when I hear "maussade" is dreary. August here was kind of dreary. But yesterday and today were bright, sunny, and hot, and the next few days are supposed to be the same. Pas triste.
ReplyDelete