OT: merde^13 (was: Spit, spat, spitten)

[Patrick_Botti at DRAGONSYS.COM]

Mark,

Correction.....
It is indeed a term used by the youth in France nowadays.
Please, refer to this site...

http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/French.html

- Patrick




Mark Mandel
02/02/2001 06:45 PM

To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
cc:   Drew Danielson <drew.danielson at CMU.EDU> (bcc: Patrick Botti/Dragon
      Systems USA)
Subject:  OT: merde^13 (was: Spit, spat, spitten)

I asked a French co-worker about this. He replied:

------------------
Indeed, the phrase "Merde à la puissance treize" is used to wish someone
good luck.
IN fact, often people will tell you "merde" to wish you good luck, and
asking you not to thank them as it would be bad omen then...
In this case, "merde" is multiplied to the power of 13 which is an obvious
"sign" (due to the positive superstition attached sometimes to the number
13).

I never heard of the acronym MALPT, never.

I hope this helps.
-----------------

Perhaps the initialism is used in email and other forms of electronic
communication, where in English such abbreviations are very common for
common and not-so-common expressions that are never abbreviated in speech
except as a back-flow from electron flow.

-- Mark A. Mandel