[Ads-l] Family of sayings: The lay-offs / firings / floggings/ beatings will continue until morale improves

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks for your response, Mark.
Yes, the phrases "pour encourager les autres" and "to encourage the
others" have both achieved some popularity in English language
documents. I plan to post a separate brief article centered on
Voltaire's quotation.

The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for the French phrase that
mentions "Candide" in the etymological note.

[Begin excerpt]
pour encourager les autres, phr.
Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French pour encourager les autres.
Etymology: < French pour encourager les autres (1759: see note) <
French pour for, in order to (see pur- prefix) + encourager encourage
v. + les , plural definite article + autres , plural of autre other
(see nous autres pron.).
Originally with reference to the execution of Admiral John Byng in
1757; compare:
1759   Voltaire Candide xxiii. 212   Il est bon de tuer de tems en
tems un Amiral pour encourager les autres.

Of a punishment or sacrifice: as an example to others; to encourage or
deter others. Now chiefly in extended and weakened uses.

[1768   J. Courtenay Remarks on Pamphlet entitled Mirror 7   The
British Admiral was shot, as a Frenchman humourously expressed it,
pour encourager les autres.]
1804   Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1844) II. 1032   The destruction
of the band is complete, but I wished to hang some of their chiefs,
pour encourager les autres.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 9:47 PM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> With regard to this excerpt from Garson's QI article
> <https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/15/morale/>:
>
> A thematic precursor appeared in Voltaire’s famous novella “Candide” in
> 1759. The witty philosopher was aware of the unfortunate death of English
> Admiral John Byng who was court-martialed and executed in 1757. Many
> observers considered Byng’s punishment unjust, and Voltaire constructed a
> mocking remark about the event which was spoken by Candide’s companion when
> the fictional duo visited England. Here is the original French statement
> followed by a translation into English. Boldface added to excepts by *QI*: 1
> <https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/15/morale/#note-438125-1>
>
> Mais dans ce pays-ci* il est bon de tuer de tems en tems un Amiral pour
> encourager les autres.*
>
> But in this country *it is good to kill an Admiral from time to time to
> encourage the others.*
>
> Though I can't provide any sources or quotations, I've seen the French
> clause "*pour encourager les autres*" used in English text a number of
> times.
>
> Mark Mandel
>
> On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 9:38 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Way back in December 2009 I posted a message to this mailing list
> > about the topic specified in the subject line.
> >
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2009-December/094631.html
> >
> > Jonathan Lighter helpfully responded to my message with a pointer to a
> > thematically germane remark written by Voltaire in his novella
> > "Candide". Barry Popik tackled this topic in 2012. After a brief
> > decade delay, I've posted an article to the Quote Investigator
> > website.
> >
> > https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/15/morale/
> >
> > [Begin acknowledgement]
> > QI performed a preliminary exploration of this topic back in December
> > 2009. At that time, QI shared the 1966 citation with a mailing list.
> > Professor Jonathan Lighter told QI about the germane Voltaire
> > citation. Other mailing list discussants provided helpful feedback
> > including: Wilson Gray, Seán Fitzpatrick, and Bill Palmer. In 2012
> > fellow researcher Barry Popik published a beneficial webpage on the
> > topic. Thanks to the volunteer editors of Wikiquote who created a
> > pertinent webpage that was later deleted. Additional thanks to the
> > participants at the websites Metafilter, Quora, English.Stackexchange,
> > Wikiquote, and Reddit. Great thanks to Paul Rauber whose 2020 inquiry
> > led QI to continue this exploration and share the results on the QI
> > website.
> > [End acknowledgement]
> >
> > Feedback welcome
> > Garson O'Toole
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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