A New Feature

As a motivational tool for myself, I am adding a new feature to View From The Bunker, viz., another Word of the Day - this one will be French. The old "Word of the Day" continues unchanged. I now have a new list of interesting or obscure words to draw from, besides my own readings. The admixture of French should be fun. Of course, my French is clumsy and I will make many errors. Corrections are appreciated.

First, in French, Bunkerman is "L'homme du bunker", literally, the Man of the Bunker. That's how they say things in French. In French, "homme" means "man". "Du" means "de le", viz., "of the." Or more generically, it could be "l'homme de bunker", but since I am unique, no doubt, I think "l'homme du bunker" is correct. I suppose over time l'homme du bunker might contract to "Homme-bunker" - no jokes please.

London is getting six inches of snow - the most since 1990. Uh ... where is global warming ? Of course I've recently heard that more snow is caused by global warming, as is less snow. Heck, everything is caused by global warming and man.

European markets are down as are US futures. Another bad day beckons. I guess the Davos pessimism was infectious.

Tom Daschle seems to have underpaid taxes. Uh ... he figured that free car and driver were not income. As a senator, that is true - the rich and powerful give themselves all sorts of breaks. And he claimed charitable deductions that were unwarranted. Why are we surprised he felt himself to be Homo Superior to the rest of the common men and women.

The Steelers won a very exciting Superbowl. I saw the first half, including that 100 yard interception runback. Then it was my bedtime, viz., 8PM. Oh well. I also watched a bit of the Puppy Bowl in the Animal Planet channel, including part of the Kitty halftime show. Both were lots of fun and a relief from the pomposity of the Superbowl.

Word of the Day

"Vomiturient" - adjective [$1000]
Vomiturient means of or characterized by a desire to vomit.

"Vomitous" - adjective [$100]
Vomitous means 1. of, pertaining to, or causing vomiting; 2. (informal) repugnant, disgusting, nauseating: vomitous business methods.

Sentences: Upon reading the details of the so-called Stimulus Plan over the weekend, I became vomiturient. The details are quite bad as most of the money is neither stimulus nor useful expenditure. The vomitous stimulus bill passed by the House needs considerable modification by the Senate.

Le Mot du Jour

"Amour-propre" – noun, masculine; the plural is amours-propres.
Amour-propre means pride, self-esteem.
La phrase: L’amour-propre excessif, ou l’orgueil, était un grand péché en Grèce ancienne.
English sentence: Excessive pride, or hubris, was a great sin in ancient Greece.

NOTE : “Orgueil’ directly translates as “hubris”. It’s a masculine noun, too. “Péché” means “sin”. So a sinner is “un pécheur” for men and “une pécheresse” for women.

The sin of pride is “le péché d’orgueil”.
The sin of the flesh is “le péché de chair”
A youthful indiscretion is “un péché de jeunesse

By the way, “La phrase” means “the sentence” in French. One must include the definite [‘the’ = le/la for m/f] or indefinite [‘a/an’ = un/une for m/f] articles with the nouns in French. That’s why one sees all those “le” and “la” words before French words. The “le/la” is contracted to l’ before words beginning with vowels.

For most places, my source is the Collins Robert French Unabridged Dictionary, eighth edition.