Re: FW: WIDOWS POLICES ??

From: John Cowan ([email protected])
Date: Fri Oct 27 2000 - 14:51:54 EDT


"Alain LaBont� " wrote:

> � Une police [de caract�res] � simply means "a character font", as odd as it may look. In other contexts, � police � also means � cop � in French. Hard to catch for English-speakers, but true.

Doesn't it also have the sense of "[insurance] policy"? I remember a
machine-translation joke, something to the effect of the French version
of "You may wish to protect your jewelry with a special policy" came out
in the English version as "police special" --- which in the U.S. means
"the .38 caliber handgun traditionally carried by the police", quite
twisting the sense of the sentence!

-- 
There is / one art                   || John Cowan <[email protected]>
no more / no less                    || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things                   || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness                 \\ -- Piet Hein



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