Sunday 11 August 2013

Hale and Hearty

Enjoying a visit to Paris, I like to spot words in French that have obviously migrated into English.

Eiffel Tower - just before it was evacuated on August 9th, 2013

This week's word is 'hâlé' (pronounced ah-lay in French), meaning bronzed or sunburnt.  I have no idea how to say the word in such a way as to distinguish it from the more common verb 'aller' meaning 'to go'.  I assume that context is king.

Surely is is the origin of the English word 'hale'.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, might be a false friend. hâlé seems to come from Latin assare (grilled?) while hale comes from Old English hal, "healthy / whole"

(Found this site while trying to look up something on neonatal development, i.e. why human babies are born so incompetent - something about maximum birth size)

B*

Unknown said...

I always admired the beauty of this amazing city. Paris is my dream place where I want to go for my honeymoon. I am soon going to get married. I need to manage my weight otherwise I will have no option but to go for Plus size wedding dresses. Thanks for sharing such an informative post on Paris beauty.