Sunday, April 8, 2012

ac·cou·tre·ment : This word is not French? Or is it?

Photo of one of hundreds of possible quesadilla  recipes.
I dined in an Irish Pub just across the Mississippi from our residence an hour ago. The host offered me "accoutrements"... I knew what he meant... he was referring the to the ketchup, mustard, salsa, guacamole and sour cream that they serve as condiments to go with the meal. (Yes, I ordered a quesadilla* in an Irish bar. Noth'n more American than ordering something of Mexican origin at an Irish bar on Easter Sunday.)

The word "accoutrement" is familiarly used in this part of the U.S. for condiments and sides that go with a main dish. But I realized tonight that I have never experienced this word in the French speaking world. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen this word in print and didn't know how to spell it. So I came home and looked it up. I could not find it online in a French dictionary, but Merriam Webster's Free Online Dictionary gives the following definition for the word in English:

accoutrementsplural of ac·cou·tre·ment (Noun)

Noun:
  1. Additional items of dress or equipment, carried or worn by a person or used for a particular activity.
  2. A soldier's outfit other than weapons and garments.
Aha! Another old French word gobbled up by locals and used for our own devices. Add it to the list of hybrid words walking the balance beam between two languages.

(Update as of October 2012:  this word is now in Word Reference.com  There accoutrement is defined as a mascarade or, in English, the informal expression "get-up", which means a costume or the way someone is dressing that day. e.g. "She wore her usual get-up.")

* A quesadilla Norte Americano is as follows:  a flour or corn tortilla filled with a mixture of cheese and other ingredients, folded over or matched with another tortilla and browned on each side to melt the cheeses. Served with salsa and sometimes sour cream.

** If you've read this far you might be interested that, as of January 31, 2013, this blog entry has by far the most hits of any of my 209 entries to date.
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4 comments:

  1. Freedom_ManJune 29, 2014 at 4:41 AM

    Hi Suzan. I am an Irish writer. To be honest I only started writing a few years ago but I thoroughly enjoy it. We used the word accoutrement to refer to a thing usually some sort of gadget that the person didn't know the name of.

    http://www.seanocarolan.com

    I post lots of writing competitions here.

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  2. Suzan GrovenderJune 29, 2014 at 6:38 AM

    Thanks for your input. Last night I was watching an old "Poirot" and his character commented on a recipe and it's accoutrements. There's something just really interesting about the word.

    Good luck with your writing. Despite delays I'm still working on a book... it keeps morphing on me!

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  3. Gio D.May 6, 2015 at 10:52 AM

    I've been using the word "accoutrement" for years ever since learning it from my father when we talk about traditional toppings that might accompany raw oysters on the half shell such as a mignonette, cocktail sauce, horseradish, or lemon. It appears, that I've likely been misusing the word as have many people.

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    Replies
    1. Suzan GrovenderMay 7, 2015 at 8:56 AM

      I think it's a good example of borrowing a word and changing the meaning... a fairly frequent occurrence between languages. I'm in a French conversation class now in which the instructor has told us about a lot of English words that are being absorbed into French.

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