Apparemment, il y a bien une fédération d’Arts Martiaux Historiques Européens (AMHE) française.

Je connais très mal l’escrime, je ne savais pas pour l’escrime espagnol mais ça ne m’étonne pas vraiment. Du coup, je t’imagine un peu en Inigo Montoya dans Princess Bride (“Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”) ou en Chat Potté (Puss in Boots).

Tu devrais apprécier cette curiosité : https://jlai.lu/post/16539347

@[email protected] je me permets de te ping ici, pour l’étymologie de portmanteau (je sais que tu aimes bien ce genre de choses).

Aucun problème, tu peux écrire en français. Tu l’écris d’ailleurs très bien ! Ça ne me dérange pas pour l’absence d’accents, ça nous arrive parfois de ne pas les mettre (surtout quand on écrit vite sur smartphone).

Selon Wikipédia, cet usage du mot “portmanteau word” en anglais viendrait de Lewis Caroll. C’est un jeu de mot qu’il a inventé dans Through the Looking-Glass (1871).

Il utilise l’image d’une valise qui s’ouvre par le milieu et révèle deux compartiments : un seul mot suffit pour dire deux choses à la fois. À l’époque de Lewis Caroll, ce type de valise particulier s’appelait en anglais « portmanteau », ce qui explique l’expression anglaise « portmanteau word ».

Dans le roman De l’autre côté du miroir, au chapitre 6, le personnage Humpty Dumpty explique à Alice la signification du mot « slictueux » (« slithy » en anglais) qui apparaît au début du poème Jabberwocky :

« Well, “SLITHY” means “lithe and slimy.” “Lithe” is the same as “active.” You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word. »

En français, on dit mot-valise (a bag-word). Ça n’aurait d’ailleurs pas vraiment de sens pour nous de dire porte-manteau (coat rack).

Wikipedia :

The word portmanteau was introduced in this sense by Lewis Carroll in the book Through the Looking-Glass (1871), where Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of unusual words used in “Jabberwocky”. Slithy means “slimy and lithe” and mimsy means “miserable and flimsy”. Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the practice of combining words in various ways, comparing it to the then-common type of luggage, which opens into two equal parts.

In french, we use “mot-valise” (“bag-word”). It wouldn’t really make sense for us to say porte-manteau, as it means coat rack.

Pour l’expression “touché”, effectivement c’est une expression d’escrimeur et a le même sens métaphorique que pour les anglophones. Mais nous n’utilisons presque plus cette métaphore. Ça nous fait un peu penser au roman Les Trois Mousquetaires d’Alexandre Dumas et aux films de cape et d’épée. Par contre, on l’entend souvent prononcé par les anglophones !

As for the expression “touché” it has the same metaphorical meaning as it does for English speakers. But we hardly ever use this metaphor anymore. It reminds us a bit of the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and swashbuckling films. On the other hand, we often hear it pronounced by English speakers ! Actually, some of us like to use it sometimes with the english accent cause it sounds posh.

Do you use foil, épée ou sabre ?

Porte-manteau is actually a french word, the association of the verb “porter” (to carry) and the noun “manteau” (coat) ;)

But, the way it is used here seems to mean “malle” in french, or bags, as you mentionned it. Like this :

It’s always funny, as a French person, to see old french words still used in English (like “touché”) or with another meaning (but it’s pretty much the same for us with English I think).

Done !

The Bayliss Rare Books in London sold last month, for £15.000, a letter by Bram Stoker written only a few weeks after Dracula was published in 1897.

My dear Williams, I send you Dracula & have honoured myself by writing your name in it. How is enclosed for high? Lord forgive me. I am quite shameless.

Yours ever,

Bram Stoker

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/apr/16/rare-letter-bram-stoker-early-thoughts-dracula

Thank you ! I’ll watch it.

Oh, I didn’t know that. Last year, I started to listen the first episode of a four-part podcast on Vlad the Impaler, broadcast on a french public radio. The descriptions of the impalements were horrific, so I stopped. I should try again.

Here, it says :

In Europe, the confusion between two Wallachian lords spawned a monstrous creature, and Dracula is based on this hybrid being composed of the father, Vlad Dracul—“dragon,” “devil,” or “stake,” depending on whether one favors the Latin etymology (draco) or Old Slavonic (dr’kol); and the son, Vlad Tepes, known as the Impaler.

On the vampire myth, it also says :

We know from a reliable source, since Stoker explicitly mentions it in these preparatory notes, that he learned a lot about vampiric manifestations through the reports of Dom Augustin Calmet for Louis XVI on the subject of vampire contagions in Europe.

The vampire epidemics throughout history could in reality have been “porphyria”, a parasitic disease.

The symptoms of this disease truly echo the physical and psychological representations of the vampire: anemia, extreme pallor, hypersensitivity to daylight and noise, irritability, reddening of the gums, teeth, and whites of the eyes, thickening of the nails, and even a garlic allergy that triggers catalepsy!

Remedies include seclusion, nighttime outings, and blood ingestion or transfusion to alleviate the anemia.

Since people buried in a state of catalepsy were not truly dead, some of them managed to escape from their tombs, and the legend was born.

Not related to this chapter, but I was wondering why Count Dracula can move like a lizard. Is this common in vampire legends ? I know that St. George’s day has different meanings in different countries (in Romania : the famous dance of vampires and demons). But could this be in any way related to the St George folklore as popularized by Jacques de Voragine in La Légende Dorée (Golden Legend), 1249-1266, where St. George slays a dragon terrorizing the city of Silenus in Libya ? This scene has been painted by many artists throughout history. For Christians, it symbolizes the deliverance of the Church, oppressed by paganism.

Saint George and the dragon

Paolo Uccello (1397 - 1475)

1430-35, painted wood panel, 131 x 103 cm

I was quite confused as this passage, so I read it in my native language (french), then searched for a traduction in french of “Omnia Romæ venalia sunt”. I found :

• tous les Romains sont vénaux [ou corrompus] (all Romans are venal [or corrupt])
• l’Enfer a son prix, la connaissance aussi (Hell has its price, knowledge too)

And sapere, in latin, could mean : to be intelligent, wise / to know his matter, to understand, etc.

So, I would say that, in this context “hell has its price, knowledge too” would be the better interpretation. And, that "under what circumstances would I not avoid the pit of hell ? " is just a rhetorical question to the comparison/metaphor he just wrote the line before “which I avoid with the patients as I would the mouth of hell”.

And, a foreshadow, unbeknownst to him, of what is to follow.

Ps : I hope I was clear, I’m not used to writing in english.

I know no more than the dead where even to look for them.

Is this a common English expression ? I found this quite funny since Count Dracula is undead, and certainly does know more than him.

I can’t help but imagine Jonathan Harker as Nicholas Hoult. I know some critics didn’t appreciate his acting in Nosferatu, but I found him perfect as the naïve, pretty-faced, fiancé.

A few comments on the first chapter :

• I need to try Paprika Hendl, Mamaliga and Impletata
• I like that Bram Stoker praises these dishes, but still, he must have found them quite salty to insist on Jonathan’s thirst like that.
• Reading the first chapter of Dracula suddenly remembered me of Fred Vargas’s novel, Un Uncertain place, an investigation that leads a french police captain on the path of vampire hunters in Serbia. She obviously took inspiration in Dracula and vampires myths (she’s a french historian, archeologist and detective writer so you always learn historical anecdotes).

I’ve just bought myself a copy of the book. I’ll try to catch up !