Felicia Davin - Felicia Davin (Page 8)

Felicia Davin

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Felicia Davin

An addendum

The newsletter I just sent out was supposed to include this image of Jacques-Louis David’s famous 1793 painting The Death of Marat, but I was in a hurry and forgot it. Here you can see Marat, stabbed in his bathtub, and possibly the drapery in the painting is the

The Fantastic Mr. Renard

The Fantastic Mr. Renard

RENARD, n. This is how you say “fox” in French. It’s not what you’d expect from the Latin, where the word for “fox” is variously spelled vulpes, vulpis, volpes, and provides the source of English vulpine, which means “related to foxes” and also “crafty, cunning.” Old French did

Nineteen ninety-six

Nineteen ninety-six

NONANTE, n. This is a variation on the (France) French way to say “ninety,” instead of quatre-vingt-dix (for those who have not studied French, that’s literally four-twenty-ten). It comes directly from Latin nonaginta. Nice and logical. It’s not even phonologically exciting: we fully expect that word-final a to

Art-schmart

SCHMANCY, adj. This word isn’t from a Romance language, exactly. It has international origins. Usually you see “schmancy” as part of “fancy-schmancy,” which is a Yiddish construction that entered US English along with Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants. Yiddish has a linguistic feature called “rhyming reduplication,” which is what’s happening

Dead Dove Do Not Eat

French literature

Dead Dove Do Not Eat

LEGERDEMAIN, n. This word is a fancy French import that means “sleight of hand,” which is funny because it’s literally light of hand in French, just all run together: lightofhand. (This looks like a tumblr username and now I’m kind of mad that it was never mine.) Legerdemain,

Glorious bastillards

EMBASTILLER, v. French literally has a verb that means “to imprison in the Bastille.” Originally it meant “to surround [a city, a place] with fortifications (bastilles),” but it came to refer to holding someone the famous prison in Paris. By extension, it can also be used to indicate putting someone

I get so emotional, baby

EMOTION, n. In addition to being a fantastic Carly Rae Jepsen album (in the singular) and a soaring Mariah Carey song (in the plural), this is also a word we use to talk about our inner lives. It comes to English from French émotion, which is from Latin ēmovēre, “to

Pro patria or pro-patois

Pro patria or pro-patois

First, and most importantly, a Greek-speaking friend shared with me after last week’s discussion of “metaphor” that Greek moving vans say metaphores on them, because they’re transferring stuff from one place to another, which is so great. PATOIS, n. There’s a saying in linguistics that “a language

Metaphor school

French literature

Metaphor school

METAPHOR, n. Well, it’s week three and I’m already breaking the rules. This word isn’t from Romance roots, since it’s Greek, and much like last week’s choice “ambiguous,” “metaphor” is highfalutin enough that it didn’t undergo much sound change. It was imported directly from

No doubt about it

French literature

No doubt about it

I write in my notebook with the intention of stimulating good conversation, hoping that it will also be of use to some fellow traveler. But perhaps my notes are mere drunken chatter, the incoherent babbling of a dreamer. If so, read them as such. —Basho, translated by Sam Hamill, “The

French literature

Small joys

SEXY LEXICOGRAPHY, or, a word of the week PORTMANTEAU, n. This word, in its first sense, means a suitcase, usually a leather one that opens into two equal parts. It comes to English via the French porte-manteau (or portemanteau, let’s not split hyphens), literally “carry-coat,” although in French, it

Word Suitcase

Felicia Davin is a Romance linguist and a romance novelist, and Word Suitcase is a weekly email newsletter, archived here as a blog, about the words (mostly Romance) and books (mostly romance) that have been on her mind.

A review of Thornfruit at Strange Horizons

Strange Horizons Review: Thornfruit “As the first book in a completed trilogy, Thornfruit did a good job of being self-contained while still leaving me curious and eager to find out what happens next. Though there were times I wanted to see more of events than what we were shown through

Edge of Nowhere at Love in Panels

Love in Panels: Sci-Fi Romance Best Bets August 2018 Veronica Scott mentions Edge of Nowhere as a “best bet” in her sci-fi romance column at Love in Panels: “The world building was wonderful in the book, full of lived-in details that make the reader feel they could step right into

A review of Edge of Nowhere from Joyfully Jay

Joyfully Jay Review: Edge of Nowhere “I found myself engrossed in following along with all the intricacies of how things worked and Davin just has created a clever and nicely developed world. I also loved how there is sort of a mystery vibe here as Kit and Emil attempt to

A review of Edge of Nowhere from Happily Ever After Book Nerd

Happily Ever After Book Nerd Review: Edge of Nowhere “From the moment I read the blurb for Edge of Nowhere I was excited and what was supposed to be a few chapters of reading turned into finishing this book in one sitting. Felicia Davin’s writing and storytelling flows quickly

A review of Edge of Nowhere in Smexy Books

Smexy Books Review: Edge of Nowhere “Kit and Emil are really sweet guys with flaws, that they overcome to love each other. There is a pretty intense attraction between them, and their chemistry and sexual tension are done well.”