🚀 go-pugleaf

dmark@acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark) wrote:

>I have a question.  I finally managed to find a French dictionary 
>in a store over here-- not a French-English dictionary, but a 
>French-French dictionary, words and their meanings.  I was surprised to 
>find <<etang>> defined as:
>
>etendue d'eau moins vaste et moins profunde qu'un lac
>
>(yes, I realize that the initial 'e's in etang and etendue have accents 
>over them...)
>
>... "extent of water smaller and less deep than a lake"
>
>very much like the definition of "pond" in English.
>
>Anyway, my question is how to explain "Etang de Berre", "Etang de Vaccares", 
>et tout les autres etangs grandes de Languedoc??  These are actually much
>larger than typical lakes in France, so they would seem to contradict the
>definitions.
>
>So...
>Is the above dictionary definition "wrong"?

An etang IS a pond, but the dictionnaire Bordas adds, "Certaines
lagunes sont aussi appelees etangs (par ex. les etangs qui borde la
cote du Languedoc." So there you are.

I see that the key is the etymology: the word is cognate with
"stagnant". So the use of the word for a lagoon as well as a pond
seems appropriate.

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