A few years ago we stayed in a hotel whose bedrooms the Guide Michelin describes as “cosy”, a word which they had borrowed from English.
That sounded fine to us until we saw the room and realised that they meant extremely small.
Yesterday in the magazine section of a bookshop I noticed several magazines with decor ideas for “Maisons Cosy ” and discovered that the use of this word extended past the Guide.
The French are of course using a euphemism because in this context small would be pejorative.
In fact the English language had exactly the same problem and auctioneers have always referred to smaller properties as Bijou the French word for a jewel, again a borrowed word somehow carrying less sting.
Funnily I never thought before that small, in some contexts , could be a dirty word.
Comments
isabel
on November 7, 2011“compacte”,”coquette” “convivial” are other words of which one should be aware when buying French property.
martine
on November 7, 2011When I was a kid (around 1960), a cosy-corner was a kind of furniture composed by a single bed and shelves (after the war, due to the lack of apartments, large families were sharing little flats with the eldest – we, in fact, were living in my grand-mother’s- and had to make the most of the very little space they had. Does “cosy-corner” have the same meaning in English?
Peter
on November 7, 2011Cosy Fan Tutte = Thus Are they Small
Martin
on November 7, 2011Isabel.
And there is a strange habit of calling small ladies petite in English.
Martine.
I don’t think so, cosy corner was more generally used for a sheltered spot by the fire.
Peter
or Small admirer of all ?
Peter
on November 8, 2011I can’t better that, Isabel.
Apropos of nothing: Back when Martine was a kid (i.e. about 1960) there was a tearooms in Cork called “The Kosy Kitchen” (or should that read “a kafe in Kork kalled . . . .”?) It was in an upstairs premises in one of the streets off Oliver Plunkett St, and they did a line in puff pastry.
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