Is “to the manor born” an eggcorn?

tothemanorborn

From Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 1, scene 4:
HORATIO:     Is it a custom?
HAMLET:      Ay, marry, is’t:
But to my mind, though I am native here
And to the manner born, it is a custom
More honour’d in the breach than the observance.

When Hamlet described himself as “to the manner born”, what he meant was that he was destined to be suited to the custom in question by virtue of his birth (“I am native here”). Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in about 1600, and he probably coined (or at least first popularized) this phrase. Note, however, that there is no suggestion of high class or nobility in the original meaning of the expression; at that time, “to the manner born” could just as easily refer to someone of lowly status accustomed to the practices of his family business, or indeed to anyone destined by dint of their birth to certain thoughts or practices common to their circumstances. Thomas Hardy, writing about his hero the sheep-farmer Gabriel Oak in Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), noted that “if occasion demanded he could do or think a thing with as mercurial a dash as can the men of towns who are more to the manner born.”

Class or status did creep in, however, when a similar expression, “to the manor born”, entered standard English in the mid-19th century.  It means more or less the same as Shakespeare’s phrase, but the emphasis is on one’s nobility — rather than simply one’s birth — making you destined for a certain suitability, usually to the comforts or advantages of a privileged class. Whereas manner denoted simply customs or habit, its homophone manor signifies a mansion or estate associated with the wealthy or upper classes. The second phrase seems to have become more common and more standard than the original, at least in colloquial usage (and of course they’re more or less identical in spoken form), with the result that the two expressions have become virtually indistinguishable in their meaning; both now convey the sense of loftiness that was inherent only in the younger, newer expression.

Linguists and etymologists have long argued about the relationship between the two sayings: was the second one introduced as a spin-off of the first by accident or by design? Was it a deliberate play on words, with someone changing the spelling of “manner” to “manor” in order to introduce an extra element to the phrase, or even just as a pun? Or was this an example of what modern linguists call an “eggcorn”: an erroneous misspelling that comes into its own and eventually assumes its own slightly different meaning?

An eggcorn differs from a pun in that it begins as an error; much like its cousins the mondegreen and the malapropism, an eggcorn arises when someone hears and perceives a spoken word as either a homophone or a combination of words that sound similar, and the resulting misspelling assumes its own — often slightly eccentric — meaning. A classic eggcorn is the phrase “duck tape”, which sounds just like “duct tape” but can easily be — and evidently was — misheard at some point, taking on a new life of its own with its inadvertent new spelling.

To the Manor Born was a popular BBC sitcom broadcast in 1979. That it had such high ratings and was so apparent in the English culture of the time might help explain why this version of the phrase has became more standard in the vernacular than Shakespeare’s original — perhaps even more so in England than in the US?

Well, that’s my excuse, because I have to admit it: I thought that this was the original and only spelling and meaning of the phrase (and I watched the TV show). I was unaware that I’ve been using a pun or an eggcorn all these years, when I could have been quoting Shakespeare …

A right royal birth announcement

towncrier2

A town crier announces the birth of the Prince of Cambridge

This statement was delivered a few minutes ago by Kensington Palace:

“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4.24pm.

The baby weighs 8lbs 6oz.

The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth.

The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and members of both families have been informed and are delighted with the news.

Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well and will remain in hospital overnight.”

The news was also announced on an old-fashioned piece of paper, as demanded by royal custom and history to retain “the theatre” expected of any royal occasion. A piece of cream-colored A4-sized Buckingham Palace letterhead, signed by the doctors who assisted the Duchess during the labor and birth, was mounted on a royal easel that last proclaimed the birth of this little boy’s father just over 31 years ago, and it proclaimed:

“Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4.24pm     today. Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well.”

Long live the future King of England!

Update: July 24, 2013: His Royal Highness now has a name — three, in fact. He will be christened George Alexander Louis. And he will be known officially, at least for the time being, as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge.

There’s nowt so queer as queer itself

a. juliejordan b.   queerasfolk  c.  oz

What do all the characters above have in common?* Nothing seems to link them, until you realize that they’ve all been described by the same word — somewhat iconically or significantly in each case — but they each represent a different sense of the word at different stages of its lifetime, which has been fairly tumultuous.

If you were to try and identify one word that symbolizes how very pliant, dynamic and versatile our language is, queer might just be it. A fascinating word with a long and colorful history and usage (as an adjective, noun and verb), it dates back to the beginning of the 16th century, has undergone several transformations in its 400 plus years — especially in the last two or three decades, was in disgrace for a long while, and is now experiencing something of a renaissance or reclamation process that is as bold and controversial as its definition has ever been. What other word is recognized in such a variety of senses — from antiquated poetic (in Hardy and Dickens, eg.) to outlawed insult to legit hipster category?

The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the birth of the English word queer to about 1500, with its meaning (adj) of “strange, peculiar, eccentric” from Scottish, perhaps from the Low German queer meaning “oblique, off-center,” related to the German quer, meaning “oblique, perverse, odd,” in turn from the Old High German twerh, “oblique”.

During the course of the 18th century, it acquired a new and associated sense — still as an adjective — of “feeling out of sorts, unwell, faint, giddy”. Charles Dickens, in his Pickwick Papers of 1837, wrote queasily of “legs shaky — head queer — round and round — earthquake sort of feeling — very.” From the late 18th century on, queer has also been used as a verb: first meaning “to puzzle, ridicule or cheat”, and then later, from about 1812, changing to mean “spoil or ruin”, or “to jeopardize”.

By the turn of the 20th century, the word had acquired firm connotations of sexual deviance, especially referring to the behavior of homosexual or effeminate males, and it’s difficult to determine exactly when queer moved from this loose meaning of kinky, aberrant or dissolute to the more specific sense of homosexual. The Oxford English Dictionary identifies this as happening just after the turn of the century, citing a 1914 article in the Los Angeles Times that described a club being “composed of the ‘queer’ people”, where “the ‘queer’ people have a good time”. The OED also quotes Arnold Bennett in 1915 talking about “an immense reunion of art students, painters, and queer people. Girls in fancy male costume, queer dancing, etc.” In my opinion this seems more in keeping with the earlier, unspecific sense of the word, and the Online Etymological Dictionary bears this out by claiming (without actual citations) that the first real use of queer in the sense of “homosexual” (as an adjective) was recorded in 1922, with the related noun following soon after in 1935.

The next few decades were dark days for the five-letter word, when it was used predominantly as a derogatory adjective (and noun) for homosexual men and women, and it was slowly but surely consigned to the linguistic gutter as politically incorrect, insulting, or just plain taboo. However, queer‘s sense of eccentric or unorthodox did linger for a while longer through the first half of the 20th century, and the verb meaning “to ruin or spoil” endures to this day — if somewhat archaically.

It was during the late 1980s that the tide started to turn, and then began what could be described as queer‘s identity crisis out of which it hasn’t yet emerged. Not surprisingly it reflects the immensely complicated and subtle issues of sexual and gender identity that many of those people defined by the word — either by others or by themselves — have struggled with historically. It was towards the end of the 20th century that queer started its re-appropriation as a term of self-identification by gay activists, who wrested it from the shadows where it had lurked for so long as an anti-gay epithet. In 1990, the LGBT community — galvanized by a newly-formed organization called Queer Nation — famously began this overt process of reclamation by distributing a flier called “Queers Read This” at that year’s New York Gay Pride Parade.

Emerging from this period of partial rehabilitation, queer is now used by some as a descriptive umbrella term — usually as an adjective, and primarily in a neutral or even a positive sense — for sexual and gender minorities who do not identify themselves as heterosexual, hetero-normative, or gender-binary; it encompasses (but isn’t necessarily confined to) gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people, and is used as a self-defining label actively and predominantly by a younger demographic. People who see themselves as this kind of queer are turning their backs on the conformist values of the gay mainstream and prefer the more unconstrained definition (or non-definition) of sexuality and gender.

The word has come to have strong socio-political overtones, as it is commonly adopted by activists and people who positively reject and might even feel oppressed by the traditional and distinct sexual identities that have been so dogged by prejudice over the decades. As is the case for so many re-appropriated words like it (see Glossophilia’s earlier post on this subject), queer remains an offensive insult to a large number of people to whom the modern catch-all might apply — especially when it’s used by heterosexuals. For older members of the LGBT community who remember the historically pejorative meaning of queer well, it can be associated with extreme political correctness or political radicalism, or is simply a piece of disagreeable slang used by a self-conscious youth movement, and is therefore best avoided.

Despite its current status as controversial or ambiguous and its long history as a derogatory expression, and perhaps because of its growing acceptance as a reclaimed word, queer has managed to find a prominent place in popular culture and keeps a presence in common phraseology (see below), so much so that the word now has its own hip abbreviation: “Q”.

Queer in popular culture:

Queer Eye (originally called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy): an American reality TV series from 2003, based on the premise or understanding that gay men are superior to their straight counterparts in matters of fashion, style, personal grooming, interior design and culture.

Queer as Folk (see below); originally a UK TV series, then an American series

Queer Duck: an American animated TV series, and the first animated series to have homosexuality as its predominant theme

Queer in colloquialisms or phraseology:

“There’s nowt so queer as folk”: a Northern English expression meaning that people sometimes behave in the strangest ways. Although completely unrelated to homosexuality, this is the phrase on which the title of the TV series Queer as Folk (see above) was based.

“To queer the pitch”: according to PhraseFinder, its original meaning was to interfere with or spoil the business of a tradesman or showman (and the Online Etymology Dictionary confirms this sense from 1846 referring to the patter of a tradesman or showman, as in a “sales pitch”), and more recently it has meant “to spoil the business at hand”. (As noted above, queer meant “to spoil” from the early 19th century.) The phrase “to queer the pitch” was first recorded in the vernacular speech of 19th-century London, in The Swell’s Night Guide, 1846: “Nanty coming it on a pall, or wid cracking to queer a pitch.”

“In Queer Street”: was used in the UK to describe someone in financial trouble, as noted in the 1811 edition of Francis Grose’s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* The “queer” characters illustrated above are:

a) Julie Jordan: “You’re a queer one, Julie Jordan” is a song about the main character in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical Carousel (written in 1945), referring to her non-conformist and somewhat enigmatic personality:

“You’re a queer one, Julie Jordan
You won’t ever tell a body what you think.
You’re as tight-lipped as an oyster,
And as silent as an old Sahara spink”

b) The characters in Queer as Folk: the first hour-long drama on American television (it began in 2000) to focus on and portray the lives of gay characters, following the trials and tribulations of five gay men and a lesbian couple in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

c) Dorothy’s friends: Polychrome (the rainbow’s daughter) remarks to the main character, Dorothy, in L. Frank Baum’s book The Road to Oz : “You have some queer friends, Dorothy.” (Her famous response is “The queerness does not matter, so long as they’re friends.”). I’ve often wondered why this isn’t offered as the origin of the euphemism “Friend of Dorothy” (or FOD) for gay people. Judy Garland, a gay icon (who famously portrayed Dorothy in the MGM movie The Wizard of Oz), and Dorothy Parker are usually cited as the names or explanations behind the expression.

JAY Z no longer mononymous

jayz

It’s nice to see the modest and often-misused hyphen making headline news.

Yesterday, the Mirror explained that “the US rapper has dropped the hyphen from his title and is teasing us with some CAPS LOCK action.”

The BBC screamed from its red-topped roofs: “JAY Z changes spelling of his name”

“A source has confirmed that the hyphen has been dropped and that it is now ‘all capital letters’.”

Billboard editor Joe Levy tweeted: “JAY Z has dropped the hyphen from his name, according to his label. I am not kidding. (Wish I was.) Copy editors: take note.”

With this spelling change, JAY Z leaves the ranks of a distinguished list of mononymous celebrity artists, past and present. Here are some of those he has left behind:

Adele
Beyoncé
Bono
Cher
Drake
Enya
Flea
Hammer
Ice-T
Ke$ha
Ludacris
Lulu
Madonna
Moby
Pink
Prince
?uestlove
Raffi
Sting
Twiggy
Usher
Yanni

 

 

 

 

Portion distortions and misnomers

supersize

When was the last time you ordered a “small” beverage at a coffee bar — and you received a small drink without being asked if by small you actually meant tall or medium? Doesn’t “medium” mean somewhere in between small and large? The OED defines it as “a middle quality, degree, or condition; something intermediate in nature or degree” (noun), or as “intermediate between two or more degrees in size, character, amount, quality, etc.” (adj). So how can you order a medium anything if there isn’t a smaller version regressing it towards the mean?

And don’t think that ordering a “large” is any easier. We’re in the US, dude, where it’s 50 shades of huge, and medium is the new small. “Venti”, “grande”, “trenta”, we all demand exotically: as long as the order has an Italian vowel at the end to make it sound suitably grandioso, we’re OK. But we know we’ll be on the hunt for a WC (and possibly a crash-cart) long before we’re likely to see any dregs in the bottom of the coffee cup …

In May 2012, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his intention to restrict the sale of sugary soft drinks in his bid to fight an epidemic of obesity and obesity-related diseases. His plan was to limit the size of sweet beverages sold in movie theaters, restaurants, stadiums and arenas to 16 ounces (0.5 litres). Let’s just emphasize that: To limit the size to 16 oz. It is common in the US to find 32-ounce and even 44-ounce cups of sugary drinks. Back in the 50s, McDonald’s sold only one size of soda: 7 oz. Today, a “small” ordered in that storied joint will get you 12 ounces; a “large” siphons 32 oz of sweet nothings into your arteries and kidneys. It was only after the huge success and impact of the hilarious and hard-hitting movie Supersize Me in 2004 that McDonald’s did away with its longtime marketing campaign to encourage its customers to upgrade or “supersize” their orders (and themselves).

Perhaps the greatest and cruelest irony is the name of the largest portion on offer in today’s U.S. and UK eateries. Yes, restaurant chains such as Britain’s Beefeater and America’s Chili’s let you order “bottomless” chips — and that doesn’t translate to ‘you will lose your bottom once you’ve consumed that infinite portion of fried fare’. “Bottomless” you will not be; lifeless you might… (In France, they word this portion size more delicately: “à volonté” — meaning literally “at will”, which puts your fat and your fate more firmly into your own hands.)

Needless to say, Mr. Bloomberg was thwarted in his attempt to make us more bottomless and less supersized. Apparently he’s now moving on to elevators …

~~~~~~

Further reading: About.com tells us all we’ll ever need to know about Starbucks drink sizes:

Demi — Literally, ‘demi’ means ‘half.’ Unlike most Starbucks drink size names, it is of French origin (not Italian origin). The Demi size is the smallest size at Starbucks, and is used to describe an espresso drink size. It’s three ounces (89 milliliters), which sounds tiny until you realize it’s only for standard espressoshots, which are usually only about one ounce each. And that a double shot is usually under two ounces. Yikes!

Short — The ‘Short’ was one of the two original Starbucks cup sizes. (The other was ‘Tall.’ Makes sense.) It’s a mere eight fluid ounces (240 mL), and aside from the Demi (which is mostly a size espresso shots), it’s the smallest drink size available at Starbucks. For many people who drink coffee at home, six to eight ounces is a standard cup size.

Tall — The ‘Tall’ is the other original Starbucks drink size. When Starbucks started, the Tall was basically a Large. Now, it’s basically a Small. In fact, if you order a ‘Small’ at Starbucks, you get a Tall. A Starbucks Tall measures in at 12 US fluid ounces (350 milliliters).

Grande — Pronounced GRAWN-day, ‘Grande’ is Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French for ‘Large,’ but at Starbucks there are two even larger drinks, the Venti and the Trenti. The Grande is 16 US fluid ounces (470 milliliters / 2.5 cups).

Venti — Pronounced VENN-tee, Venti is Italian for 20. A Venti is 20 ounces (590 milliliters), so in a way, this name makes sense… until you realize that none of the smaller portions have names that relate to their sizes numerically.

Trenta — Introduced in 2011, the ‘Trenta’ is the newest (and the largest) of Starbucks drink sizes. ‘Trenta’ means 30. You might be thinking, “Oh, it’s a continuation of the Trenta theme. It’s 30 ounces.” Nope. Strangely, it’s 31 ounces (920 milliliters). It’s almost as though 30 ounces wasn’t enough to make it the ‘Big Gulp’ of the coffee world. The Trenta size is reserved for iced drinks only (including iced coffee, iced tea, lemonade and other drinks served over ice), and it usually costs about 50 cents more than a Venti of the same drink.

These sizes apply for most hot Starbucks coffee drinks and espresso drinks. However, there are a few exceptions, the most noteworthy of which is the sizing of iced Venti drinks. Iced Venti Drinks are usually 24 ounces rather than 20 ounces. According to the Starbucks website, the Iced Cocoa Cappuccino* is an exception to this — the iced version is still 20 ounces. Venti (20 oz, not the usual 24-oz Venti iced drink cup size).

* see previous Glossophilia post about knowing your coffees

Thanks to Max, the Venti of @TeamAwesomeNYC, for the grande idea

Know your coffees

   

As Frank Sinatra sang, “They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil”. Well, we’ve got an awful lot of coffee brews in the world — hot and cold, black and brown, frothy and smooth, strong and weak, bitter and sweet — and they are named variously and sometimes exotically: after the ingredients they contain, the countries they originate in, the way they’re made, or simply the way they look.

Here, courtesy of Wikipedia (with some Glossophilia edits), is a fairly comprehensive dictionary of coffees; please add any more in the comments section below.

 

Affogato

An affogato

An affogato (Italian for “drowned”) is a coffee-based beverage or dessert. “Affogato style”, which refers to the act of topping a drink or dessert with espresso, may also incorporate caramel sauce or chocolate sauce.

 

Antoccino

An Antoccino is a single shot of espresso with steamed milk in a 1:1 ratio, served in an espresso cup.

 

Black Eye

A Black Eye is dripped coffee with a double shot of espresso. It has a strong taste.

 

Breve

Beverage made with steamed half-and-half cream.

 

Caffè Americano

A Caffè Americano

Caffè Americano or simply Americano (the name is also spelled with varying capitalization and use of diacritics: e.g. Café Americano, Cafe Americano, etc.) is a style of coffee prepared by adding hot water to espresso, giving a similar strength to but different flavor from regular drip coffee. The drink consists of a single or double-shot of espresso combined with between 1 and 16 fluid ounces (30 – 470ml) of hot water. The strength of an Americano varies with the number of shots of espresso added. In the United States, “Americano” is used broadly to mean combining hot water and espresso in either order, but in a narrower definition it refers to adding water to espresso (espresso on the bottom), while adding espresso to water (espresso on the top) is instead referred to as a “long black”.

Variations include: long black, lungo, red eye, and Tors Hammer (from Norway)

 

Café au lait

Café au lait as being served in Oslo, Norway; espresso and steamed milk, served in a bowl

A café au lait is traditionally the French way of preparing ‘coffee with milk’ both at home and in cafés in Europe. “Café au lait” stems from the same continental tradition as “caffè latte” in Italy, “café con leche” in Spain, “kawa biała” (“white coffee”) in Poland, “Milchkaffee” in Germany, “Mèlange” in Austria, “koffie verkeerd” in Netherlands, and “café com leite” in Portugal, meaning simply “coffee with milk”.

In northern Europe, café au lait is the name most often used in coffee shops for what other places call a ‘caffè latte’.

The term ‘café au lait’ has been used for espresso + milk since the 1950s in (among other places) the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

In the U.S., ‘café au lait’ is defined as a coffee beverage consisting of strong or bold coffee (sometimes espresso) mixed with scalded milk in approximately a 1:1 ratio.

 

Café Bombón

Café bombón

Cafe Bombon was made popular in Valencia, Spain, and spread gradually to the rest of the country. It might have been re-created and modified to suit European tastebuds as in many parts of Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore the same recipe for coffee which is called “Kopi Susu Panas” (Malaysia) or “Gafeh Rorn” [lit: hot coffee] (Thailand) has already been around for decades and is very popular in “mamak” stalls and “kopitiams” in Malaysia. A café bombón, however uses espresso served with sweetened condensed milk in a 1:1 ratio whereas the Asian version uses ground coffee and sweetened condensed milk at the same ratio. For café bombón, the condensed milk is added to the espresso. For visual effect, a glass is used, and the condensed milk is added slowly to sink underneath the coffee and create two separate bands of contrasting colour – though these layers are customarily stirred together before consumption. Some establishments merely serve an espresso with a sachet of condensed milk for patrons to make themselves.

 

Café Cubano

Café Cubano (Cuban coffee, Cuban espresso, cafecito, Cuban pull, Cuban shot) is a type of espresso that originated in Cuba after espresso machines were first imported there from Italy. Specifically, it refers to an espresso shot which is sweetened with demerara sugar as it is being brewed, but the name covers other drinks that use Cuban espresso as their base. Drinking café cubano remains a prominent social and cultural activity within Cuba, Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa and the Keys, as well as the Cuban exile community. Café Cubano is available in almost all coffee shops in Miami, making it a staple of local cuisine and tradition.

 

Caffè crema

Caffè crema (Italian: cream coffee) refers to two different coffee drinks: 1) An old name for espresso (1940s and 50s), and 2) a long espresso drink primarily served in Switzerland and Austria and northern Italy (1980s onwards), along the Italian/ Swiss and Italian/ Austrian border.

As a colorful term it generally means “espresso”, while in technical discussions, referring to the long drink, it may more narrowly be referred to as Swiss caffè crema.

Variant terms include “crema caffè” and the hyperforeignism “café crema” – “café” is French, while “caffè” and “crema” are Italian, thus “café crema” mixes French and Italian.

 

Café de olla

Café de olla or pot coffee is a traditional coffee-based drink prepared using earthen clay pots or jars in Mexico and other Latin American countries. It is flavored with cinammon and piloncillo. Consumed primarily in colder weathers, usually with the merienda meal, and accompanied with pan dulce pastries.

 

Caffè latte

A Caffè latte

Similar to the Portuguese Galão, a latte is a portion of espresso and steamed milk, generally in a 1:3 to 1:5 ratio of espresso to milk, with a little foam on top.

 

Caffè Marocchino

The Marocchino is made from espresso, steamed milk, and a dusting of cocoa powder, similar to the espressino.

 

Caffè Medici

A Caffè Medici is a doppio poured over chocolate syrup and orange peel, usually topped with whipped cream. The drink originated at Seattle’s historic Last Exit on Brooklyn coffeehouse.

 

Café miel

A café miel has a shot of espresso, steamed milk, cinnamon, and honey. The name comes from the French word for honey, miel.

 

Cafe mocha

A mocha latte in Costa Rica

A café mocha is a variant of a caffè latte. Like a latte, it is typically one third espresso and two thirds steamed milk, but a portion of chocolate is added, typically in the form of a chocolate syrup, although other vending systems use instant chocolate powder. Mochas can contain dark or milk chocolate.

The term moccaccino is used in some regions of Europe and the Middle East to describe caffè latte with cocoa or chocolate. In the U.S. it usually refers to a cappuccino made with chocolate.

A “cafe borgia” is a mocha with orange rind and sometimes orange flavoring added. Often served with whipped cream and topped with cinnamon.

 

Caffè Tobio

Caffè Tobio is an espresso drink with an equal amount of regular coffee. This combination simultaneously helps the flavor of weak coffee and hides the bitter flavor of espresso. Useful in chain coffee bars.

 

Café Touba

Café Touba is the spiritual beverage of Senegal, named for the holy city of Touba. During the roasting process, the coffee beans are mixed with grains of selim, and sometimes other spices, and ground into powder after roasting. The drink is prepared using a filter, similar to plain coffee. Sugar is often added before drinking.

 

Cafe Zorro

A Cafe Zorro is a double espresso, or doppio, added to hot water with a 1:1 ratio.

 

Ca phe sua da

A Cà phê sữa đá

Cà phê sữa đá, also known as, cafe sua da (Vietnamese: Cà phê sữa đá) or “V-caf”, is a unique Vietnamese coffee recipe. Literally, ca phe sua da means “iced milk coffee”. Ca phe sua da can be made simply by mixing black coffee with about a quarter to a half as much sweetened condensed milk and then pouring it over ice. A substitute made by many Vietnamese immigrants in the Southern U.S., particularly in Louisiana is a dark French roast, often with chicory; otherwise an imported Vietnamese-grown and roasted coffee is used when it is available. The coffee is traditionally brewed with a small metal Vietnamese drip filter into a cup containing the condensed milk. The condensed milk and coffee are stirred together and then poured over the ice. Ca phe sua nong (Vietnamese: ‘cà phê sữa nóng’) — literally, “hot milk coffee” — is made by excluding the ice.

In Spain, there is a similar beverage called Café del Tiempo ([Summer] Weather Coffee) or Café con Hielo (Coffee with Ice). Similarly, Café Bombón can be served with ice. The coffee is served in a small cup and an empty small glass with ices cubes. Sugar or condensed milk is added in the small cup while the coffee is still hot, and then the coffee is poured in the small glass with ices. When the coffee is cooled, the remaining ice is removed with the help of a spoon.

 

Cappuccino

Cappuccino

Cappuccino is a coffee-based drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and steamed milk foam. A cappuccino differs from a caffè latte in that it is prepared with much less steamed or textured milk than the caffè latte with the total of espresso and milk/foam making up between approximately 150 and 180 millilitres (5 and 6 US fluid ounces). A cappuccino usually exceeds the height of the cup, making the foam visible above the side of the cup. A cappuccino is traditionally served in a porcelain cup, which has far better heat retention characteristics than glass or paper. The foam on top of the cappuccino acts as an insulator and helps retain the heat of the liquid, allowing it to stay hotter longer.

 

Chai Latte

Numerous houses use the term chai latte to indicate that the steamed milk of a normal cafè latte is being flavoured with a spiced tea concentrate instead of with espresso. Add espresso shots for a “Dirty Chai Latte”.

 

Chocolate Dalmation

A Chocolate Dalmatian is a white chocolate mocha topped with java chip and chocolate chip.

 

Coffee milk

A coffee milk is a drink similar to chocolate milk; however, instead of chocolate syrup, coffee syrup is used. It is the official state drink of Rhode Island in the United States.

 

Cortado

A café cortado, served in Barcelona

A cortado is an espresso (also known as “Pingo” or “Garoto”) “cut” (from the Spanish and Portuguese cortar) with a small amount of warm milk to reduce the acidity. The ratio of milk to coffee is between 1:1 – 1:2, and the milk is added after the espresso. The steamed milk hasn’t much foam, but many baristas make some micro foam to make latte art. It is popular in Spain and Portugal, in Norway as well as throughout Latin America, where it is drunk in the afternoon. In Cuba, it is known as a cortadito. It’s usually served in a special glass, often with a metal ring base and a metal wire handle. There are several variations, including cortado condensada (espresso with condensed milk) and leche y leche (with condensed milk and cream on top). In the United States it is sometimes known as a “Gibraltar”. Differs from Cappuccino with little or no milk foam, and from Flat White in that the Flat White is always prepared with a double espresso and no foam.

 

Decaf

A coffee beverage made with decaffeinated beans.

 

Dirty Chai

Chai tea with a single shot of espresso. In addition, 1-2 tablespoons of instant Espresso may be brewed while simultaneously steeping Chai in the same container; a small amount of a dairy or non-dairy beverage of choice is usually added to complete the drink.

 

Doppio

Extracting a doppio

Doppio in espresso is a double shot, extracted using a double filter basket in the portafilter.

 

Eiskaffee

Eiskaffee, literally “ice cream coffee”, is a popular German drink consisting of chilled coffee, milk, sweetener, vanilla ice cream, and sometimes whipped cream.

 

Espressino

An espressino is made from espresso, steamed milk, and cocoa powder, similar to the Marocchino

 

Espresso

Espresso

Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water — about 86 to 95 °C (187 to 203 °F) — under pressure through finely ground coffee beans. Espresso often has a thicker consistency than coffee brewed by other methods, a higher concentration of suspended and dissolved solids, and  crema   (meaning  cream, but being a reference to the foam with a creamy texture that forms as a result of the pressure). As a result of the pressurized brewing process the flavours and chemicals in a typical cup of coffee are very concentrated. Espresso is the base for other drinks, such as a  latte, cappuccino, macchiato, mocha, or americano. Espresso has more caffeine per unit volume than most beverages, but the usual serving size is smaller—a typical 60 mL (2 US fluid ounce) of espresso has 80 to 150 mg of caffeine, little less than the 95 to 200 mg of a standard 240 mL (8 US fluid ounces) cup of drip-brewed coffee.

 

Espresso Romano

An Espresso Romano is a shot of espresso with a small rind of lemon and sugar added to it.

Flat white

A flat white with latte art

A flat white is an espresso coffee with a similar proportion of coffee to milk as a caffè latte and a cappuccino, the main difference being the texture of the milk and (in some regions) the number of espresso shots.

The drink originated in Australia and New Zealand in the late 1970s as alternative to the frothier cappuccino. It has since spread to the UK, where it first began to be served by independent cafes in London like Department of Coffee and Social affairs and Speak Easy, Where Owners and staff are from New Zealand bring the style of coffee into the UK before being adopted by chains Costa and Starbucks. It is rarely found in continental Europe or the United States.

In New Zealand it is traditionally made with two shots of espresso topped with stretched and texturised milk. The milk is prepared by steaming air into the milk and folding the top layer into the lower layers. To achieve the “flat”, non-frothy texture the steamed milk is poured from the bottom of the jug, holding back the lighter froth on the top in order to access milk with smaller bubbles, making the drink smooth and velvety in texture. This leads to a white coffee with the crema on top still intact. The drink was traditionally served in a ceramic cup used for cappuccinos (approximately 220-260ml in capacity), though present-day speciality cafes are more likely to serve it in smaller (150-160ml) cups with two Ristretto shots used, resulting in a drink noticeably stronger and less milky than a caffè latte.

Outside New Zealand, the milk is prepared in a manner more similar to that of a caffè latte; the milk is stretched and texturised but is poured freely rather than the froth being held back with a spoon or knife. This results in a thicker density of milk with more froth.

In Australia the drink more closely resembles a caffè latte as it tends to be served with a single shot of coffee, resulting in a weaker and milkier drink.

In the United Kingdom the drink has a similar strength to the New Zealand version. It is made in a small cup (150-160ml), contains two espresso (often ristretto) shots, and is often finished with latte art. The skill needed in preparing ristretto shots and latte art means that it is viewed as something of a speciality product in the UK.

 

Galão

Galão is a hot drink from Portugal made of espresso and foamed milk. In all similar to caffè latte or café au lait, it comes in a tall glass with about one quarter coffee, 3 quarters foamed milk. When the proportion is 1:1 it is called “meia de leite” (Chinesa in Madeira) and it comes in a coffee cup.

 

Guillermo

Originally, one or two shots of hot espresso, poured over slices of lime it can also be served on ice, sometimes with a touch of milk.

 

Greek frappé coffee

A Café frappé

Greek frappé (Café frappé) (Greek: φραπές) is a foam-covered iced coffee drink made from spray-dried instant coffee. It is very popular in Greece especially during summer, but has now spread on to other countries. In French, when describing a drink, the word frappé means shaken and/or chilled; however, in popular Greek culture, the word frappé is predominantly taken to refer to the shaking associated with the preparation of a café frappé.

 

Green Eye

A Green Eye (also known as “Triple Death”) is dripped coffee with a triple shot of espresso.

 

Half-caf

Beverage made with half and half parts caffeinated beans and decaffeinated beans.

 

Iced coffee

Iced coffee is a cold variant of the normally hot beverage coffee.

 

Indian filter coffee

South Indian Coffee, also known as Madras Filter Coffee or Kaapi (Tamil phonetic rendering of “coffee’) is a sweet milky coffee made from dark roasted coffee beans (70%–80%) and chicory (20%–30%), especially popular in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The most commonly used coffee beans are Peaberry (preferred), Arabica, Malabar and Robusta grown in the hills of Kerala (Malabar region), Karnataka (Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru) and Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris District,Yercaud and Kodaikanal).

 

Instant coffee

Instant coffee

Instant coffee is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Through various manufacturing processes the coffee is dehydrated into the form of powder or granules. These can be rehydrated with hot water to provide a drink similar (though not identical) to conventional coffee. At least one brand of instant coffee is also available in concentrated liquid form.

Irish Coffee

Irish coffee is coffee combined with whiskey and cream, often further sweetened with sugar. Also available as a flavor of ice cream.

 

Kopi susu

Kopi susu is found in (at least) Malaysia, Borneo and Indonesia and very similar to the preceding entry for Ca phe sua nong. Literally, kopi susu means “milk coffee”. Served in a glass, kopi susu can be made simply by mixing black coffee (arabica) with about a quarter to half a glass of sweetened condensed milk then let stand to cool and allow the grounds to sink to the bottom. You should not drink this to the end unless you want to “eat” the ground coffee. Kopi Turbruk is as above but uses sugar instead of sweetened condensed milk.

 

Latte macchiato

Latte macchiato literally means stained milk. This refers to the method of preparation, wherein the milk gets “stained” by the addition of espresso. It differs significantly from caffè latte firstly in that espresso is added to milk (rather than milk to espresso), secondly that it features more foam, rather than simply hot milk, thirdly in that often only ½ (or less) of an espresso shot is used, and fourthly in that it is often a “layered” drink, rather than being mixed as in a caffè latte. Simply, in a caffè latte, the emphasis is on the coffee, while in a latte macchiato, the emphasis is on the milk.

Macchiato

A Caffè macchiato

Caffè macchiato – Macchiato, meaning ‘stained’, is an Espresso with a dash of foamed milk. At first sight it resembles a small Cappuccino but even if the ingredients are the same as those used for Cappuccino a Macchiato has a much stronger and aromatic taste.The milk is foamed directly into the espresso cup, which is then put under the coffee outlet. The espresso is then drawn into the cup. Cocoa is then sprinkled over the drink (optional).  Often the process is reversed and milk foam is floated on top of extracted coffee. A long Macchiato will have two shots of espresso and a small amount of hot water (as per long black). A short Macchiato will usually have one shot of coffee and less water (as per short black).

 

Mélange

Mélange is popular in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and is traditionally similar to caffè latte and cappuccino (and more a mix of the two), a large cup with (today) espresso and steamed milk with some milk foam. Mélange and its ‘cousin’ cappuccino both have variations with whipped cream atop the blend of milk and coffee. Outside Vienna this is sometimes referred to as ‘Wienermelange’, although that name does not exist there. The origin of Mèlange goes back to the 1700s as a Café drink (you wouldn’t call it that at home) in Austria.

 

Mocha (see Cafe mocha above)

 

Mazagran

Mazagran (sometimes misspelled as Mazagrin) is a long cold coffee beverage usual in Portugal and served in a tall glass. It is made with at least strong coffee – usually espresso – lemon and ice, though sometimes sugar, rum or water is added. Sometimes a fast version is achieved by pouring a previously sweetened espresso in a cup with ice cubes and a slice of lemon.

 

Palazzo

A Palazzo is an iced coffee variant, popular in Southern California. It is two shots of espresso, chilled immediately after brewing and mixed with sweetened cream. A Palazzo is typically made using a moka pot.

 

Pharisäer

A Pharisäer, meaning a Pharisee, is an alcoholic coffee beverage that is popular in the Nordfriesland district of Germany. It consists of a mug of black coffee, a double shot of rum, and a topping of whipped cream. In 1981, a court in Flensburg ruled that 2 centilitres (0.70 imp fl oz; 0.68 US fl oz) of rum were not sufficient for preparing a genuine Pharisäer.

 

Pocillo

A shot or small portion of unsweetened coffee, now usually made either using an espresso machine or a moka pot, but traditionally made using a cloth drip, usually served in cups made for the purpose (called “tazitas de pocillo“). It is widely-drunk in Latin America, usually as an afternoon or after-dinner coffee. The defining feature is the size, usually half size to a quarter size of the usual ~8 US fluid ounces (240 ml) coffee cups. There are a number of small-sized drinks that use tazitas de pocillo, including sweetened (such as café cubano and café cortado), but these are usually not called a pocillo; rather, the Spanish diminutive suffix “-ito” is usually added to the name of the drink wanted in a pocillo size cup. For example, a pocillo-sized cortado is usually called a cortadito.

 

Red Eye

A Red Eye is dripped coffee with a single shot of espresso. This drink is also known as a Shot in the Dark.

 

Red Tie

A traditional Thai Iced Tea, which is a spicy and sweet mixture of chilled black tea, orange blossom water, star anise, crushed tamarind, sugar and condensed milk or cream, with a single shot of espresso.

 

Red Tux

A Zebra Mocha combined with raspberry flavoring.

 

Regular coffee

In New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia, a regular coffee is one with milk (or cream) and sugar. A variant phrasing is coffee regular.

 

Ristretto

Ristretto is a very “short” shot of espresso coffee. Originally this meant pulling a hand press faster than usual using the same amount of water as a regular shot of espresso. Since the water came in contact with the grinds for a much shorter time the caffeine is extracted in reduced ratio to the flavorful coffee oils. The resultant shot could be described as bolder, fuller, with more body and less bitterness. All of these flavors are usually attributed to espresso in general, but are more pronounced in ristretto. Today, with the hand press out of favor and modern automated machines generally less controllable, ristretto usually just means less water; a double espresso shot is typically around 60 ml (2 fl oz), while a double ristretto is typically 45 ml (1–1.5 fl oz).

 

Rüdesheimer kaffee

Rüdesheimer kaffee is an alcoholic coffee drink from Rüdesheim in Germany invented in 1957 by Hans Karl Adam. It is made with Asbach Uralt brandy with coffee and sugar, and is topped with whipped cream.

 

Skinny Latte

A reduced calorie latte made with steamed non-fat milk.

 

Turkish coffee

Beans for Turkish coffee are ground or pounded to the finest possible powder, finer than for any other way of preparation. Preparation of Turkish coffee consists of immersing the coffee grounds in water which is most of the time hot but not boiling for long enough to dissolve the flavoursome compounds. While prolonged boiling of coffee gives it an unpleasant “cooked” or “burnt” taste, very brief boiling does not, and bringing it to the boil shows without guesswork that it has reached the appropriate temperature.

In Turkey, four degrees of sweetness are used. The Turkish terms and approximate amounts are as follows: sade (plain; no sugar), az şekerli (little sugar; half a level teaspoon of sugar), orta şekerli (medium sugar; one level teaspoon), and çok şekerli (a lot of sugar; one and a half or two level teaspoons). The coffee and the desired amount of sugar are stirred until all coffee sinks and the sugar is dissolved. Following this, the spoon is removed and the pot is put on moderate heat; if too high, the coffee comes to the boil too quickly, without time to extract the flavour. No stirring is done beyond this point, as it would dissolve the foam. Just as the coffee comes to the boil the pot is removed from the heat. It is usually kept off the heat for a short time, then brought to the boil a second and a third time, then the coffee is poured into the cups. Getting the thickest possible layer of foam is considered the peak of the coffee maker’s art. One way to maximise this is to pour slowly and try to lift the pot higher and higher as the pouring continues. Regardless of these techniques, getting the same amount of foam into all cups is hard to achieve, and the cup with the most foam is considered the best of the lot.

 

Vienna coffee

A “Vienna coffee” is the name of a popular traditional cream based coffee beverage. It is made by preparing two shots of espresso in a standard sized coffee cup and infusing the coffee with whipped cream (as a replacement for milk and sugar) until the cup is full. Then the cream is twirled and optionally topped off with chocolate sprinklings. The coffee is drunk through the cream top.

 

White Coffee

Ipoh “White” Coffee is a popular coffee drink which originated in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The coffee beans are roasted with palm-oil margarine, and the resulting coffee is served with condensed milk. The taste is smooth and sweet, and is often served iced.

“White coffee” is also a common nickname in the UK for coffee with milk.

 

Wiener Melange

A Wiener Melange

A Wiener Melange is a specialty coffee drink similar to a cappuccino. The difference is sometimes assumed to be that the Melange is made with milder coffee but the Viennese coffee company Julius Meinl describes a Wiener Melange as “one small espresso served in a large cup of coffee. Steam milk and add milk foam to coffee (=small milk coffee)”. Cafe Sabarsky in Manhattan concurs. At Cafe Sperl in Vienna, the Melange is 1/2 cup “black coffee” and 1/2 cup creamy milk, completed by milk foam.

 

Yuanyang

Yuanyang, sometimes also called Ying Yong, is a popular beverage in Hong Kong, made of a mixture of coffee and Hong Kong-style milk tea. It was originally served at dai pai dangs (open space food vendors) and cha chaan tengs (cafe), but is now available in various types of restaurants. It can be served hot or cold. The name yuanyang, which refers to mandarin ducks, is a symbol of conjugal love in Chinese culture, as the birds usually appear in pairs and the male and female look very different. This same connotation of “pair” of two unlike items is used to name this drink.

 

Zebra Mocha

A Zebra Mocha, sometimes known as a “Black Tux” or a “Black and White”, is a mixture of regular mocha with a white chocolate mocha

 

* Liqueur coffee, as its name suggests, is a coffee brew with a 25 ml shot of liqueur. This brew is usually served in a clear, clean, pre-heated, liqueur coffee glass with the coffee and cream separated for good visual and taste effect. The liqueur of choice is added first with a teaspoon of raw cane sugar mixed in. The glass is then filled to within an inch of the top with good, strong, fresh filter coffee. Fresh, chilled, additive free, slightly whipped cream is then poured carefully over the back of a cold teaspoon, so that it floats on top of the coffee and liqueur mixture. The sugar is required in the coffee mixture to help the cream float.

Names of specific liqueur coffees:

  • Gaelic coffee (Drambuie or Glayva)
  • Irish Coffee (Whiskey)
  • Brandy Coffee (Brandy)
  • Keoke Coffee (Brandy and Kahlúa)
  • English Coffee (Gin)
  • Calypso Coffee (Tia Maria or Kahlúa and Rum)
  • Jamaican Coffee (Tia Maria & Rum)
  • Shin Shin Coffee (Rum)
  • Baileys Irish Cream Coffee
  • Monk’s Coffee (Bénédictine)
  • Seville Coffee (Cointreau)
  • Witch’s Coffee (Strega)
  • Russian Coffee (Vodka)
  • Priest Coffee (Brennivín)
  • Corfu Coffee (Koum Quat liquor)
  • Kaffee Fertig (coffee with Swiss prune schnapps)
  • Caffè corretto (that is an Italian beverage, consists of a shot of espresso “corrected” with a shot of liquor, usually grappa, brandy or sambuca.)
  • Coffee liqueurs (ex. Kahlúa, Kamora)

Two drink each other’s, more drain one another’s

vampires

“Each other” and “one another” are both reciprocal pronouns. This means that whatever is happening between “each other” or “one another” is going in two (or more) directions; if John and Jane love each other, he loves her and she loves him. When students share their revision notes with one another, no-one is at a disadvantage come exam time. But is there a difference between the two expressions? Or are they the same as each other?

Some traditionalists – and even several usage guides – advise that each other should be used to denote a reciprocal relationship only between two entities, whereas one another refers to three or more people or things. When Cher sang “Love One Another” about 10 years ago, she was presumably advising many people to love reciprocally; had she been addressing just one couple, “Love Each Other” (according to these strict grammarians) might have been more appropriate. A brother and sister compete with each other; three contestants vie with one another for the main prize …

However, in practice these expressions are used more or less interchangeably, whatever the number involved. In South Carolina yesterday, it was reported that “Spartanburg beekeepers encourage each other.” I’m guessing there are more than two beekeepers in Spartanburg. In a discussion about the Trayvon Martin case, MSNBC’s  Thomas Roberts talked about how Americans are “treating each other with such disdain it’s not even funny.” There are definitely more than two Americans out there in the world, so Roberts obviously doesn’t abide by this particular rule.

Merriam-Webster traces “the prescriptive rule” (of each other for two, one another for three or more) back to the writings of a grammarian, George N. Ussher, in 1785, but goes on to explain that Ussher had no foundation for distinguishing between the terms whose interchangeability had been established many centuries earlier. “There is no sin in its violation,” reassures MW about the restriction, which has never existed in practice. Most modern dictionaries define the terms as interchangeable.

Fowler is relaxed about the interchangeability of the reciprocal pronouns. In the second edition of his Modern English Usage, he explains: “Some writers use each other only when no more than two things are referred to, one another being similarly appropriated to larger numbers; but this differentiation is neither of present utility nor based on historical usage. The old distributive of two as opposed to several was not each but either; and either other, which formerly existed beside each other and one another, would doubtless have survived if its special meaning had been required.

There is one situation, arguably, in which one another might be the preferred choice of expression, and that’s when talking about an ordered series (often temporal) of events or stages. “The relay runners passed their batons seamlessly to one another,” suggesting a handover one after the other. New York’s Daily News described today how customers were “pick[ing] up one another’s bills in [a] chain reaction at Massachusetts’ Heav’nly Donuts”. Here there’s a clear indication of more than two people in relationships that move forward in time. “The soldiers followed one another onto the parade ground” would sound slightly awkward if each other were substituted (unless there were only two of them).

One small word about possessive usage: The Sun reported today that “lovebirds Lia Benninghoff and Aro Draven share an unusual bond — they drink each other’s blood.” Each other and one another act as singles (ie. the apostrophe goes between other or another and the ‘s’) when they have possessions — whether they’re vampires or anyone else. They each own it, despite sharing it, and it belongs to only one of them at a time.

Every time we say goodbye …

solongfarewell

Which song contains these lyrics? “So long, fare thee well, Pip! Pip! Cheerio!”

There are many ways to say goodbye, however sweet or sorrowful, profound or fleeting the parting might be. Here’s where some of them come from.

Goodbye: from 1590s: a contraction of “God be with you”

So long: dates to about 1860, of unknown origin. Probably from the German phrase “adieu so lange”, meaning “farewell whilst (we’re apart)”. Another theory is that it’s a corruption of “salaam” picked up by British sailors serving in Indonesia. I think it’s said more in America than in Great Britain (although you might hear it more in Ireland or Scotland?)

Farewell (poetic/dated): late 14th century, from Middle English “faren wel”, meaning literally “fare well”

Fare thee well (archaic)

Godspeed (archaic): from Middle English phrase “God spede”, with spede being the subjunctive of speden, “to prosper”: hence “may God cause you to succeed”. Usually a farewell to someone embarking on a (possibly perilous) journey.

Bye / bye-bye (informal): shortened version of goodbye

See you later (alligator) (lighthearted informal): the “alligator” addition is from an iconic rock ‘n’ roll song from the 1950s

See you: (informal): a shortening of “see you later”

Later, and more recently lates (slang): shortening of “see you later”

Peace (modern slang): shortenening of peace out; used mainly for signing off phone calls or e-mails

Cheerio (British upbeat informal): from 1910, from the word cheer

Cheers: (British informal, meaning “thank you”, “good luck”, or “goodbye”; the meaning of a drinking toast goes back to 1919, also from the word cheer, plural)

Pip-pip (British informal, dated): first used in 1907, probably because it sounds like the toot of a car horn

Toodle-oo, or tootle-oo (British informal, archaic); also Irish variant tooraloo: toodle is a variant of toddle, both meaning ‘ to walk in a leisurely manner’. Toddle-off is still used in British English, meaning wandering or tootling off.

Ta-ta / ta-ra (British informal: dated or regional): OED lists ta-ta as “a nursery version of ‘goodbye’ used playfully by adults”, first cited in 1837. Ta-ra is still used in Liverpool and Merseyside (UK), often followed by “then”, “well”, or “now”

Tatty bye: (British informal, dated): phrase made popular by comedian Ken Dodd in the 1970s

Sayonara: Japanese originally, but carries a sense of finality about it, ie. goodbye, never to see you again

And some foreign goodbyes that are used commonly in the English language:

Au revoir (French)

Adieu (French)

Auf Wiedersehen (German)

Adios (Spanish)

Arrivederci (Italian)

Ciao (Italian informal)

 

 

 

Timely salutations — en Anglais and en français

cheekkiss

I’ve just got back from across the Channel, where the flavory business of salutation isn’t all just about the obligatory kissing on both cheeks, but also involves a potpourri of expressions to use at different times of the day in different contexts and settings — but largely as goodbyes rather than hellos.

In English, apart from our general hi or hello, we have four time-specific salutations: “good morning”, “good afternoon”, “good evening”, and “good night” — the latter one usually expressed as a farewell or sign-off rather than a late-evening howdy. The first and last are common in many settings, both informal and formal, spoken and written. We’re used to greeting anyone at the beginning of the day with “good morning”, and “good night” is standard between acquaintances, friends, family or lovers — whatever the circumstances of the parting (or even just before going to sleep). But “good afternoon” and “good evening” have a more limited usage, tending to be reserved for semi-formal or formal occasions — such as at a public presentation or in a broadcast, as a written greeting, or when talking to someone on the phone. You would be unlikely to say “good afternoon” or “good evening” to a family member, friend or even colleague when you see them later in the day; the generic hi, hello or even the more modern and youthful hey is

In French, these expressions at different times of the day can translate variously into either greetings or farewells. On rising, you wouldn’t say “bon matin” (“good morning”) when you open your eyes to your bed-mate or stroll into your local boulangerie to pick up your morning baguette: you would say simply bonjour — or, more politely, bonjour madame/monsieur in the latter case. The only time you might use bon matin is in the expression de bon matin, which means “bright and early”*. The same is true for “good afternoon”: the French don’t use bon après-midi as a greeting at the start of the afternoon; rather, it’s a farewell when you’re waving someone off or parting company after le dejeuner. Bonne soirée is another more time-specific version of au revoir (“goodbye”), when you’re kissing both cheeks as the afternoon draws to a close, or wishing your cherie a pleasant evening as she heads out with her friends.

Bonsoir is multi-functional: it’s the evening equivalent of either bonjour or au revoir, and it’s the only one of these time-specific words or expressions that is appropriate on both meeting and parting — in this case after about 6pm, when the evening lies ahead, together or apart. Bonne nuit (“good night”) is the final farewell of the French day, as night falls, lovers part, families and friends retire for the night, and dreams and passions beckon.

The standard French greeting at any time of day is bonjour (with the accompanying kiss on each cheek); salut is a more casual hello if you bump into a friend outside or the meeting is fleeting or unexpected. There is a French equivalent of the American service farewell “have a nice day”: bonne journée is bidden by shop-keepers, waiters, ferrymen …

Both au revoir and adieu mean goodbye — they translate literally as “to the seeing again” and “to God”. Au revoir is the more usual and casual — equivalent to “see you later”, or at least suggesting a rendezvous in the near future. Adieu is goodbye, more formal, poignant, grave or poetic; it’s more likely to be said if you don’t know how long the separation might be, or if a certain finality is implied or desired.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*In Québec, bon matin can be used as an informal greeting between close friends and long-time colleagues. As I understand it, French-speaking Canadians and Swiss both have variations on all the above; examples and comments are welcome.