On everyone's lips but absent from the lexicon, the word "déconfinement" finally enters the dictionary next to less cheerful words like "covid". "Sometimes, everything gets carried away, and words that we had not necessarily seen coming impose themselves massively in current usage. This is what happens with the words 'covid', 'deconfinement' (.. .) "telecommuting" or even "teleconsultation", passed in daily use with the same abruptness and the same speed as the pandemic which we have to face ", explained Thursday the editors of the Petit Robert while presenting the edition 2021 of their dictionary.
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"Covid", masculine or feminine word, specifies the Petit Robert or "déconfinement" will be inserted only in the digital editions of Robert. We will have to wait a little longer to find them in the paper version. Several definitions have been completed. Thus, to the word "barrier" was added the expression "gesture, barrier measure" (precaution taken in daily life to limit the spread of a virus, of an illness). The definition of "cluster" also now includes "epidemic focus".
New expressions and words from the Francophonie
The new words in the paper version of the 2021 edition of Le Petit Robert (in bookstores from June 4) are not limited to the health sphere. Among the new words we note "cloud", "collapsology" or "sexto". If many new words are of Anglo-Saxon origin, we enjoy the words from the French-speaking world.
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We thus learn that in Belgium, when it is "mild", it is because the weather is heavy. Those who are difficult with regard to the cleanliness of the food and the cutlery are called "narous". A "stupid success" is a considerable success whereas a "paper beast" is an ordinary paper, unimportant.
"Having your ass in butter" is living in ease. As for the expression "to pinch your French", it means "to speak French with a certain preciosity or with the Parisian accent". In Switzerland, one can be "disappointed in good", that is to say pleasantly surprised, and "bobet" means "idiot, booby".
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In Canada, "disarming" means "going to great lengths". A silly person
"Leaving in terror" is leaving at full speed. Some will also discover that Canadians say "it takes" for "it takes" and that "to make someone a little velvet" is to make them happy.
"Far from being confined, the French language as presented in this dictionary manifests its vitality, its force of expansion, its openness and, to use a buzzword, its resilience this year", welcomed the linguist and lexicographer Alain Rey.