shewhomust (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shewhomust) wrote2018-12-09 11:31 am
shewhomust) wrote2018-12-09 11:31 am
Les gilets jaunes: a footnote
I have nothing to say about the substance of the news from France: but I realised yesterday morning why the British media are translating les gilets jaunes as 'yellow vests'. They aren't vests - except, of course, that in US English, they are, a waistcoat is a vest. Who knows why our reporters have got this usage from their American colleagues, but evidently they have. I shared this revelation with durham_rambler.
He was unimpressed. "You know what they are, don't you?"
"They're high-vis jackets."
"Yes," he said, "but specifically they are the high-vis jackets that French law requires you to keep in your car alongside the emergency warning triangle. We have a couple in our car."
He's right, of course.
durham_rambler.He was unimpressed. "You know what they are, don't you?"
"They're high-vis jackets."
"Yes," he said, "but specifically they are the high-vis jackets that French law requires you to keep in your car alongside the emergency warning triangle. We have a couple in our car."
He's right, of course.