Germinie Lacerteux · Chapter
Endnotes explained
This chapter provides explanatory notes on French slang and colloquial expressions used in the novel, clarifying terms related to drinking, speech errors, and other vernacular phrases.
What happens
This chapter provides explanatory notes on French slang and colloquial expressions used in the novel, clarifying terms related to drinking, speech errors, and other vernacular phrases.
Key passages
“Canon is the French word for cannon; it is also used in vulgar parlance to mean a glass of wine drunk at the bar.”
The word 'canon' in French means cannon, but in common slang it refers to a glass of wine consumed at a bar.
Clarifies a slang term for a drink.
“Battre les murailles —to beat the walls—has a slang meaning: to be so drunk that you can’t see, or can’t lie down without holding on.”
The phrase 'battre les murailles' literally means to beat the walls, but slang-wise it describes being too drunk to see or stand without support.
Explains a metaphor for extreme drunkenness.
“Cuir is an expression used to denote the error in speaking, which consists—in French—in pronouncing a t for an s, and vice versa at the end of words which are joined in pronunciation to the next word: e.g., il étai-z-à la campagne for il était à la campagne.”
Cuir refers to a speech error in French where a 't' is pronounced instead of an 's' or vice versa when words are linked in speech, such as saying 'il étai-z-à la campagne' instead of 'il était à la campagne'.
Describes a common linguistic mistake.
“In the slang vocabulary, to console one’s coffee means to add brandy to it.”
In slang, 'to console one's coffee' means to add brandy to the coffee.
Defines a colloquial expression for adding alcohol to coffee.
“A négresse is a bottle of red wine, and, as applied to that article, morte (dead) means empty.”
The term 'négresse' refers to a bottle of red wine, and when that bottle is described as 'morte' (dead), it means empty.
Explains slang for a wine bottle and its state of being empty.