Re: Unwanted 'Action Bar' [was: ersatz autosave...?]

[Patricia M Godfrey pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

Reply to message from Carl Distefano  on Tue, 8 Mar 2005
23:48:10 -0500

≪ Are you intent on that "entente", or did you intend "entendre"?≫

Aha! I wondered if anyone would notice and ask (and very neatly put the
question was), giving me an occasion for a disquisition. "Double
entendre" like "nom de plume" is what I call pseudo-French: They are
phrases formed in English from legitimate French elements (though my
Cassell's French Dictionary does not list `entendre' as a noun, but only
as a verb), but they are not idiomatic French. The French say "double
entente" and "nom de guerre." Now it is true that the pseudo-French
phrases have narrower meanings than the real French. "Nom de guerre"
covers more types of alternative names: stage and screen names, and,
obviously, the code names adopted by members of revolutionary or
resistance movements (e.g., Lenin or Stalin); a double entente can be any
sort of double meaning, not just a risqué one. It could be argued that
that justifies their use in English, but why not use the native English
"pen name" or "pseudonym" (well, that's Greek in origin, but...) and
"double meaning"? And I need to avoid disgracing my father's memory, and
he was a stickler for impeccable French.

Patricia M. Godfrey
PMGodfrey@xxxxxxxx