Bonjour tout le monde. I have learned some new French sentences just now!
Je ne peux pas me concentrer aujourd'hui - j'ai le cafard.
I can't concentrate today - I'm depressed.
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Notes: The French word cafard, which is probably from Arabic kafr (miscreant, non-believer)* has several meanings:
a person who pretends to believe in God
tattletale
cockroach
melancholy
It was the poet Charles Baudelaire, in Les Fleurs du mal, who first imbued cafard (and also spleen, incidentally) with the fourth meaning. So the French expression avoir le cafard isn't related to cockroaches at all (even though it kind of makes sense - who wouldn't feel bad about having cockroaches?)
Copy by About.com August 10 2008 (Sunday)
