Donate SIGN UP

Is 'le cafard' the same as 'the black dog'?

Avatar Image
sandyRoe | 07:34 Thu 12th Apr 2012 | ChatterBank
14 Answers
?
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 14 of 14rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by sandyRoe. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
Question Author
I know it doesn't literally mean the same. But you know what I mean.
From my pathetic Grade C 'O' level French of forty years ago, the black dog would be something like " le chien noir"
From Wiki

This term originated from the French colonies that became Algeria and Morocco, where members of the French Foreign Legion suffered extreme boredom in their stockades and took to shooting cockroaches (les cafards) with their rifles. Le cafard came to mean an extreme depression or sense of pointlessness.
Its literal meaning is a cockroach. Its transferred meaning is a fit of depression which I believe Churchill used to refer to as the Black Dog.
Notes: The French word cafard, which is probably from Arabic kafr, miscreant, non-believer* has several meanings:
a person who pretends to believe in God
tattletale
cockroach
melancholy

What meaning are you thinking of for Black Dog? (like a black sheep?)
Factor, black dog is a term for depression.
Roughly the same kind of thing, Sandy, but I would use the latter term for a major depressive illness, and the former for a feeling of extreme boredom and sense of futility.
Others may have different opinions.
Le Led Zeppelin :-)
I didn't know that, EcclesCake. The only The Black Dog that I know is a pub. I know the Led Zep track but never thought about the meaning
Questioner, are you the same SandyRoe as quoted from The Fiddler of Dooney?
Question Author
Yes. It is I. :-)
Have a good day, Sandy.
Yeats was there when I met my second wife: Kingsley Amis (RIP) was discussing Innisfree in the Daily Mirror.
Question Author
There in spirit, then. :-) Didn't he go to the great Theosophical abode in the sky about 1939?

1 to 14 of 14rss feed

Do you know the answer?

Is 'le cafard' the same as 'the black dog'?

Answer Question >>

Related Questions

Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.