the auroran sunset (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tithonus) wrote,@ 2006-09-24 02:42:00 |
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| Entry tags: | french, language, silly |
silly french time three
Anyone who has tried to watch a streaming video on a French computer may have double-taken at the following French:
mise en mémoire tamponFrom the context, it obviously means "buffering", but i could swear the literal translation would be "putting into tampon memory". I'm not quite sure what a tampon memory would be - probably quite bloody: "Saddam has a tampon memory, all he can remember is..". No, maybe not.
The French word "tampon" normally means a "wad" or "pad", but it also has a secondary meaning of "buffer".
The French for a bicycle "inner tube" is "une chambre à air", literally that's an "air bedroom". OK then.
Anyone who has done even a very little French is likely to know the word for a bank: "une banque", pronounced like the English word "bonk". What they may not know is that in French a "seat" is a miniature bank: "une banquette". I think the French must use the seats for more than sitting.
That's all the silly for tonight. :-)
