Date:  Fri, 28 Oct 1994 17:51:14 CDT

From:  Mike Picone <MPICONE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UA1VM.BITNET>

Subject: shopping cart/caddie



Dennis Baron asked (parenthetically):



>For some reason which is not clear to anybody I continually refer to the

>shopping vehicle in grocery stores as a "carriage." ...

>So where did I get it? I always thought it must be an idiotisme (is

>that the word in French?)...



The most ususual word in France is _caddie_ which used to be a brand name

for this sort of device and is a name borrowed from the Anglicized

terminology of golf. Sometimes one also hears _chariot_, which is short

for _chariot de supermarche'_. In French, the usual meaning for _chariot_

is concerned with the totally inglorious transport of merchandise in various

cart-like devices equiped with wheels. I am reminded of one of the worst

mistranslations of a movie title from English to French: "Chariots of

Fire" > "Les chariots de feu". All the sense of speed and glory is lost

in the French version. The allusion comes from an English poet building,

no doubt, on the Biblical account of Elijah taken up in the fiery "char".



Mike Picone

University of Alabama

MPICONE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UA1VM.UA.EDU