VOGUE

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VOGUE

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:54 am

• vogue •

Pronunciation: vog • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. The current popular fashion, mode, or style. 2. The things that define a current fashion.

Notes: Today's word remains so closely associated with the French language, whence it came to English, that it has not produced a large family of English derived words. Voguey and voguish have been tried as adjectives but do not seem to have stuck. This noun is also used in rap slang as a word for wire rim wheels, as cruising on vogues, probably because they are in vogue.

In Play: Vogue can be a state of mind or a fashion status: "I find myself longing for the old ducktail hair style every time I see one of the styles that are currently in vogue." It can also be the things that define the current vogue: "I miss the days when poodle skirts were the vogue."

Word History: Not only are vogues subject to radical change, the word vogue has undergone mind-boggling changes over its lifetime. The original Proto-Indo-European root of vogue is *wegh- "to go by means of transport". We are not surprised that wagon came from the same root, but weigh apparently goes back to an original sense of "carried on scales". Latin vehere "to carry" yielded a noun vehiculum, which was borrowed by English as vehicle. But the Old Low German verb wogon "to sway, rock" was nicked by Old French as voguer "to sail, row". The noun from this verb, vogue, shifted from "rowing" (rocking the boat) to "fashion" by 1571 when English assimilated it.
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Stargzer
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Re: VOGUE

Postby Stargzer » Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:47 am

• vogue •
. . . Word History: Not only are vogues subject to radical change, . . . But the Old Low German verb wogon "to sway, rock" . . .
Speaking of Rock, I guess I'm showing my age again when I remember The Vogues. Their song "Five O'Clock World" still has meaning today . . .

(Stargzer indulges in another well-deserved nostalgia rush; he had a hard day today. Bad World! Bad! Bad!)
Regards//Larry

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Postby Brazilian dude » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:55 am

I don't understand why it is boga in Spanish. What's that b doing there? cf. Portuguese/Italian/Catalan voga, French vogue, Romanian vogă.

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Flaminius
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Postby Flaminius » Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:26 pm

Well, confusing b for v, l for r is not what Japanese are endowed with usufruct.

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Postby Brazilian dude » Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:50 pm

I know that, but albeit pronunciation's equivocation, orthography is orthodox and rather etymological.

:?

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Postby M. Henri Day » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:01 pm

The impression I get from the entry in Diccionario de la lengua española is that this particular usage is a late import from the French, the pronunciation and orthography of which was affected by a similarity with an earlier import from Latin. The b/v mix up in Spanish might possibly have facilitated this process - but I was of the impression that this did not obtain in the case of initials. What's the deal ?...

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曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?

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Postby Brazilian dude » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:59 pm

Oh, I see what you mean. Αre you talking about this?
(Del lat. bōca, y este del gr. βωκα, acus. de βωξ, der. de βους, buey, y ωψ, vista, ojo).
It refers to a fish, but I see that which you're saying is highly plausible. I didn't know that there was a fish by that name, by the way.

But dissimilar cases abound: halla (from hallar - to find) and haya (from haber - to "have", to exist); voz (voice) and vos (you); ase (he/she bakes/roasts) and hace (he/she makes/does); pollo (chicken), poyo (stone bench); baca (luggage rack) and vaca (cow) and many more.

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