"pigeon" -- French slang

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu May 2 00:49:49 UTC 2013


According to Elaine Ganley and Sylvie Corbet,
writing for the Associated Press and as published
April 30 in the Boston Globe, article titled
"France cuts tax to boost start-ups" --

The Socialist president has been viewed by some
as an antibusiness leader and infuriated
entrepreneurs last year by proposing increased
taxes on investments. In response, entrepreneurs,
calling themselves ‘‘pigeons’’ — French slang for
someone who has been duped — launched an online
opposition campaign that quickly got tens of
thousands of ‘‘likes’’ on Facebook and trended on Twitter.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/04/29/france-cuts-taxes-boost-entrepreneurs/Nr09jKCHZCZDpgpCEcMO4L/story.html

And I thought it was English, and had centuries
ago migrated from "slang" to colloquial".  Is partridge wrong?

Joel

P.S.  Yes I know the word is the same in French
as in English -- it just struck me funny that an
article in English is explaining to American readers that a pigeon is a dupe.

JSB

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