Re.oficioz

[John Dunn]

Perhaps I might be allowed to give this plot a stir to thicken it up.
If my Larousse is to be believed, the meaning of 'officieux' [qui n'a
pas le charactere officiel, tout en emanant d'une source autorisee]
is, if not identical, then at least close to that of the Russian
'oficioznyj'.  The real faux amis are on the one hand the French and
Russian words and on the other English 'officious', which the Oxford
English-Russian Dictionary translates as 'navjazchivyj, nazojlivyj'
[these may not be exact equivalents, but they give a pretty good idea
of the normal English usage]. The Novyj bol'shoj anglo-russkij
slovar' does, however, give as the second meaning of 'officious'
'neoficial'nyj', and indeed the Shorter New Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary does offer 'unofficial, informal' as as one of the
meanings of 'officious', but with the observation that this in
diplomats' use and with a date of mid-19th century, when, it will be
remembered, French was even more the language of diplomacy than it is
now. Not being a mid-19th-century diplomat, I have never come across
this usage in English and would urge users of this list not to
imitate it.

John Dunn.


>le 14/03/03 11:19, Edil Legno à peitlova at TISCALINET.IT a écrit :
>
>
>>  DICTIONARY Geoffrey Hutchings gives under
>>  officious - in second meaning - oficioznyj .
>>  and  under n.officiousness - in second meaning-oficioz.
>>
>>  áÌý—ËÚ  ÒۘÂÒڒ.-ÓÙ˖ËÓÁ- ÏÓÊÌÓ Ô•’ӔËÚ¸
>>  ÍýÍ :semi-official organ  or  officious organ.
>
>You are right, "officious", as a second meaning = informal, unofficial.
>So:
>ÓÙ˖ËÓÁÌšÈ = officieux = officious (=ufficioso)
>ÓÙ˖Ëýθ̚È= officiel = official (=ufficiale)
>and  ÓÙ˖ËÓÁ = officious (or unofficial) organ.
>
>We are dealing with latine roots, and meanings can't be opposite, even with
>language evolution!
>
>
>è•Ë’ÂÚ
>û.ç.
>
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--
John Dunn
Department of Slavonic Studies
University of Glasgow
Hetherington Building
Bute Gardens
Glasgow
G12 8RS
Tel.: +44 (0)141-330-5591
Fax: +44 (0)141-330-2297
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk

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