Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Word Of The Week

frisquet

Today we woke up to a whopping six degrees - that's just under 43F. I walked Callie and not only could I see my breath, but my fingers got pretty cold. I had one hand in my jeans pocket while the other held the leash (Callie's not attached, but I carry it in case I need it) until it got too cold. Then I switched hands to warm the cold one.

I saw a blanket of fog in the river valley, but up here in the vineyards the air was crystal clear. I could see the huge tower of steam rising up from the power plant on the Loire about 50 miles away. The sun was just coming up.

The whole time I kept thinking, il fait frisquet ce matin, it's chilly this morning. The more I thought about it, the more I kept thinking, is that a real word ? So I looked it up and it is. I must have picked it up somewhere along the way.

From the Flemish frisch meaning cool, frisquet is both a noun and an adjective meaning chill or chilly.

Image from : http://www.msnbc.msn.com

6 comments:

  1. Here in Paris it was a little less frisquet, but still 10° on my balcony when last Sunday was 21 at the same time in the morning is a bit unsettling...

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  2. Officially it was exactly 6° centigrade here this morning too! But somehow I still had to scrape a thin layer of ice off my front windshield...

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  3. It's cool that you're absorbing French words now, Walt. Do you remember the Simpson episode where Bart suddenly could speak French?

    It's not much of a leap from "frisquet" to our frisky, but the meaning is not really the same.

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  4. I feel for you Mesdames et Messieurs. You have not been lucky weatherwise this year. Here in sunny Montreal Canada, we are experiencing 24 C but it can change pretty fast.

    Hopefully you will get some more warm weather before Autumn really kicks in .

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  5. Wow, Ken's blog shows folks in tank tops and beautiful blue skies, and you're freezing. That was a quick change of weather!

    I do love those snowflake stamps, though. Have you seen this website?

    http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/

    Ginny

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  6. I appreciate the "warm" comments !

    I didn't really watch the Simpsons, so I don't remember the episode in question.

    And no, I didn't know about the snowflake stamps before. Thanks for the link !

    Happy Equinox, all !

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