bureaux

[Ken Miner]

I say, you remember we once talked of how PGW uses the correct French
feminine "distraite"? He also uses "bureaux" as the (correct, conservatively
speaking) plural of "bureau". _Leave it to Psmith_, 8, II.

He wanted to learn French, I recall. That may explain it as well.

As long as I'm here, what is a "rip"? In some story or other it is said of
some fellow that he is a "rip".

Ken

[Calvin]

Post by Ken Miner
As long as I'm here, what is a "rip"? In some story or other it is said
of some fellow that he is a "rip".

A lot of fun, I imagine. As in Ripping Yarns.

[Ian Michaud, TWS]

Post by Ken Miner
I say, you remember we once talked of how PGW uses the correct French
feminine "distraite"? He also uses "bureaux" as the (correct, conservatively
speaking) plural of "bureau". _Leave it to Psmith_, 8, II.
He wanted to learn French, I recall. That may explain it as well.

Falling in the same category, he was also known to use "Esquimau",
sometimes adding an "x" to the end of the word to form the plural.

Post by Ken Miner
As long as I'm here, what is a "rip"? In some story or other it is said of
some fellow that he is a "rip".

In this sense a "rip" is another word for a "rake" - not the gardening
implement; the dissolute society man. My dictionary thinks "rip" might
be a slang shortening of "reprobate."

The Mixer

[Ken Miner]

Post by Ian Michaud, TWS

Post by Ken Miner
I say, you remember we once talked of how PGW uses the correct French
feminine "distraite"? He also uses "bureaux" as the (correct,
conservatively speaking) plural of "bureau". _Leave it to Psmith_, 8, II.
He wanted to learn French, I recall. That may explain it as well.

Falling in the same category, he was also known to use "Esquimau",
sometimes adding an "x" to the end of the word to form the plural.

Post by Ken Miner
As long as I'm here, what is a "rip"? In some story or other it is said
of some fellow that he is a "rip".

In this sense a "rip" is another word for a "rake" - not the gardening
implement; the dissolute society man. My dictionary thinks "rip" might
be a slang shortening of "reprobate."
The Mixer

Ah yes. Your dictionary is aparently the Oxford English Dictionary, and a
fine choice it is. I ought to have consulted it straightaway.

[Mike Schilling]

Post by Ken Miner
I say, you remember we once talked of how PGW uses the correct
French
feminine "distraite"? He also uses "bureaux" as the (correct,
conservatively speaking) plural of "bureau". _Leave it to Psmith_,
8,
II.
He wanted to learn French, I recall. That may explain it as well.

"Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel
Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the
shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to
talk French." -- the very first sentence of _The Luck of the
Bodkins_..

[Ken Miner]

Post by Mike Schilling

Post by Ken Miner
I say, you remember we once talked of how PGW uses the correct French
feminine "distraite"? He also uses "bureaux" as the (correct,
conservatively speaking) plural of "bureau". _Leave it to Psmith_, 8,
II.
He wanted to learn French, I recall. That may explain it as well.

"Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel
Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty
hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk
French." -- the very first sentence of _The Luck of the Bodkins_..

Just happened to run across another and more cosmopolitan version of the
same, in _The Adventures of Sally_, II, 3:

"He braced himself with that painful air of effort which announces to the
world that an Englishman is about to speak a language other than his own."

Of course it's still French that is in the offing.

Ken