Friday foolishness: foreign words

[Peter A. McGraw]

Some of these sound slightly suspect, but I can add a real one.  Driving
through France (in the 50s), we kept seeing signs pointing out a "voie
unique."  After a while we began to wonder why they kept alerting us to
"unique views" in places which struck us as scenically unremarkable at
best.  Sometimes, in fact, all there seemed to be to look at was a road
construction site.

Eventually it occurred to someone to look in a dictionary, which revealed
that "voie unique" meant single lane, i.e. one-way traffic.

Peter Mc.

--On Fri, Sep 15, 2000 1:12 PM +0000 AAllan at AOL.COM wrote:

> From an Australian columnist
> http://www.smh.com.au:80/news/0009/11/text/column8.html
>
> We tapped a rich lode of anecdotes when we told the story of Catherine
> Conlon, who traipsed all over Rome following signs and looking for Senso
> Unico - then found it meant One Way (Column 8, September 2). David Rich ,
> of Wahroonga, driving in Germany, was baffled by signs to Umleitung at
> some crossroads. The dictionary finally provided the answer: Diversion.
> Arriving in Buenos Aires late at night, and wanting to report a theft to
> police, Fay and Morrie Robinson, of Bondi, left their hotel on foot and
> without a map - but they noted from a sign that they were staying right
> next to the Jockey Club. Later, trying to retrace their steps, they found
> there were a lot of Jockey Club signs - it's a brand of cigarette. Gerry
> Freed, of Mt Ousley, said many hours were wasted looking for the little
> German town of Ausgang. "Signs to it appear on all the autobahns, but
> locals are unhelpful when you ask directions." George Grosz, of Randwick,
> got a postcard from a friend travelling in Italy: "Greetings from Olio
> Sasso". He'd glimpsed the name on a railway station - it's a brand of
> olive oil.
>
> - Allan Metcalf



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu