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I turned to Google Translate in search of a French translation for the English word “geek.” There wasn’t one. Maybe ask a French person then. “Intello” (dismis
by GuiA 8y ago
I turned to Google Translate in search of a French translation for the English word “geek.” There wasn’t one.
Maybe ask a French person then. “Intello” (dismissive diminutive of the word “intellectuel”) is in very common usage amongst school kids, and has been since at least the 60s. “Premier de la classe” (first of the class) is also used very pejoratively by children. Recently though, the French have been very happy to use the word “geek” (albeit pronounced with a French accent) in its original English meaning.
On the other hand, languages like French are extremely rich in insults for stupid people: “bete comme ses pieds,” or “dumb as hell,” literally means “as stupid as his/her feet.”
American English is full of expressions just as colorful than the French in that regard, eg “not the brightest crayon in the box”, “not the sharpest tool in the shed”, “dumber than a bag of hammers”, etc.
This blog post is just a succession of these easily falsiable generalizations that try to use pseudo-linguistic reasoning to demonstrate a blanket sweeping subjective statement (“Americans hate smart people”).
- gboudrias 8y ago> This blog post is just a succession of these easily falsiable generalizations that try to use pseudo-linguistic reasoning to demonstrate a blanket sweeping subjective statement (“Americans hate smart people”). Much like psychologists, linguists suffer a constant barrage of comments and articles by people who think they understand the field but don't. It's quite easy to not know the sheer scope of our ignorance in these fields, unlike STEM where people at least tend to realize they know close to nothing.
- lloeki 8y agoIndeed I found the premise about romantic languages quite ridiculous as I could readily think of a few pejoratives in French from the top of my head, and pretty sure I forget or miss some of them, so when TFA reaches to French I was flabbergasted. "Intello", "être une tête" (can be used both positively and negatively), "grosse tête", "quatre-yeux" (typical image of nerds with thick glasses), "tête d'ampoule" (probably the closest to nerd together with "intello"), "avoir une tête de premier de la classe", "binoclard", "coincé", "pingouin", "rat de bibliothèque", "taupe"...