Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Chillin' on the stoop

Stoop is a funny word. The region where I grew up was once a Dutch settlement and colony, and our vocabulary is peppered with words of Dutch origin. Stoop is one of them, meaning the small set of steps that lead up to a building's (usually a house's) front door. The stoop was a good place to sit and hang out, slightly above street level and out of the way of foot traffic.

Parisians, like most hip urbanites, wear black. Until something darker comes along.

I wouldn't call these steps a stoop, although the photo reminded me of hanging out on one. These columns are part of the southeastern façade of the Dôme des Invalides, the centerpiece of the massive Hôtel des Invalides complex built by Louis XIV in the seventeenth century, and the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. It's one of the more recognizable monuments in Paris, although maybe not from this picture.

7 comments:

  1. In Dutch 'stoop' is written 'stoep'. The pronounciation is the same as in English though. And you are right, the steps in the photo aren't exactly a 'stoop', but they do make a nice place to hang out.

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  2. I can't imagine you stooping so low as to hang out on a stoop, but I thank you for this bit of word origin info. I had no idea.

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  3. Ha! I had never thought about the word stoop, one way or another. Glad to know its origins :)

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  4. In South Africa it is also 'stoep' as Ladybird says it is in Dutch, but then Afrikaans is mainly from Dutch. Stoop seems a very odd spelling but spellings to vary from country to country. Have a good day Diane

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  5. Haha! We also had "stoops" growing up. I never thought about it and had no idea the word was Dutch in origins. I remember many a summer night hanging out on the stoops with family and neighbors. We also played stoop ball. Instead of someone swinging a bat, you'd throw the ball at the stoop and it would ricochet and then it was baseball as usual. Thanks for a good memory!

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  6. "It's one of the more recognizable monuments in Paris, although maybe not from this picture." - I would never have guessed. now if you showed the dome...

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