Vocabulary

Looking up 'loupe' and 'campagnol' in Littré yesterday evening, and then turning a few pages, I came across a some snippets worth sharing.

First, 'loupe' was being used by Simenon in Maigret in a sense which suggested mole, as in circular, brown growth on or in the skin. Littré has about a column inch for the word, first about 'lazy tumours under the skin', quite possibly moles, then rather more about some comparable growths in trees. Then something about oysters, then uncut precious stones, as in rough diamonds. Penultimately, a lentil shaped disc of glass used for magnification. Lastly, a term in metallurgy which I did not work through. While all this is reduced online to magnifying glass. While mole as in animal is a 'taupe'. All of which leaves me in rather a muddle.

Second, 'un lovelace' has made its way into French from Clarissa, much noticed last summer, for example at reference 1. Starting as a posh seducer, but then shading into something more louche, less pleasant.

Third, 'loup-cervier', which one comes across in Balzac's world of big business, which turns out to be nothing to do with wolves, rather a big cat. That is to say a lynx. While having got the general idea in the world of big business, I had never bothered to look it up before.

All that Littre says which is relevant is that 'cervier' come from the Latin 'cervarius', which was an adjective meaning being to do with deer. The sort of thing that wolves might well have hunted. So perhaps a loup-cervier is a big person who hunts little people, to use the language favoured by the very rich in the US when called to account for non-payment of taxes or whatever. Inappropriate use of livestock.

And fourth, our word 'campaign' in its military sense is a straight crib from the French 'campagne', mostly used to mean country, in the sense of rural rather than urban. Lots of fields and trees. Presumably from the time when the leisurely summer manoeuvres of armies were conducted in the country.

PS: 'campagnol' seems to be a slightly vague word, used in the French countryside for anything in the way of a small rat. Perhaps a vole.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/08/clarissa-concluded.html.

Reference 2: Les Scrupules de Maigret - Simenon - 1957.