Re.oficioz

[Paul B. Gallagher]

John Dunn wrote:

> 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.

A common usage for "officious" in contemporary American English, one
that has not been brought up here, is "self-important, full of oneself;
requiring cumbersome procedures as a way of making oneself
indispensable." Just imagine the "officious maitre-d'" at a high-end
restaurant or an underpaid mid-level clerk in some government agency and
you'll know what I mean. These people are not at all solicitous.

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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