Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 38, No. 431.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
                       www.dhhumanist.org
                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org




        Date: 2025-03-28 09:42:33+00:00
        From: Tim Smithers <tim.smithers@cantab.net>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 38.427: 'embrayeur'

> On 28 Mar 2025, at 08:23, Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:
>
>
>              Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 38, No. 427.
>        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
>                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
>                       www.dhhumanist.org
>                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
<snip>

>    [2]    From: David Zeitlyn <david.zeitlyn@anthro.ox.ac.uk>
>           Subject: 'embrayeur' (10

<snip>

Sorry, Willard, for butting in, but I'm curious.

David,

how do you know of 'embrayeur' in the sense of [old style]
manual clutch?  Did you take driving lessons in French, I
wonder?

I didn't learn this meaning when I learned to drive in
England, but on moving to live in a part of the world where
the driving instructors tell their pupils about "el embrague"
I wondered how "the clutch" gets to be el embrague here, from
the French "embrayeur", I've always presumed.

It's not all that surprising, Castellano [so called Spanish]
gets several technical words from French.  Una ordenador, for
example [though, in South American countries this is more
often "una computadora"].  But, and from my limited
understanding of French, "embrayeur" doesn't mean "clutch," at
least not originally, right?  Clutch get's translated into
"embrayage" in my (old) English-French dictionary.

And, in Basque, the other language in these parts, "el
embrague" is "enbragea," so we can tell where that came from.
Not one of the most exciting word acquisitions, but it does
follow how Castellano did it.

I hope you'll forgive my curiosity.

And, Willard, I like David's suggestion to you of 'images
engaged with but not looked at'.  Just don't start "looking
at" your clutch, rather than engaging it! Assuming you still
drive one of those "old" cars. -:)

-- Tim


>
> --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
>        Date: 2025-03-27 09:50:02+00:00
>        From: David Zeitlyn <david.zeitlyn@anthro.ox.ac.uk>
>        Subject: 'embrayeur'
>
> Willard
>
> only  know the sense of 'embrayeur' as the old style manual clutch in a car so
> given your prompt for the target usage Id go with 'engage'
> We have 'engage the clutch' beloved of driving instructors (finding the biting
> point)
> and in your case we could talk of 'images engaged with but not looked at'
> hope this helps
> best wishes
> david


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