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Today's Picture: Things You Find In The Store

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Take a good, long look at the name of the cookies/breakfast bars (not sure what they are).  If you can't quite make out the French there, it says "Couque D'asses."  English speakers have an immediate, and understandably juvenile, reaction to this product.  However, if you go into the language, there's a perfectly good explanation.  "Couque" (pronounced more like coouke) means "cake" in Belgian French.  And "D'asses" is most likely referring to Asse, a city in Belgium.  So, while wrong in a few ways, this product is trying to say "Cake of/from Asse."

For those of you not convinced, "âne" and "cul" actually mean "ass/butt" in French.  The first word is used in sentences like "He's such a stupid ass," and the latter is used more literally as "butt" or "posterior" and in a lot of sexual instances.  Or at least that's what the online dictionaries tell me.  French speakers, anything to add?
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  1. brizmusDecember 16, 2011 at 8:11 PM

    my addition: I have never once heard ane used to refer to anything other than a donkey. This doesn't mean it's not used in other ways, but that's how I've heard it.
    I often hear cul used in trou de cul, when saying mean things about people.
    Why am I reading your blog instead of packing?

    ReplyDelete

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