Old news: the Congress (and many Americans) are opting for “Freedom Fries” instead of “French fries.” (Read BBC article.) Americans are still calling “French toast” “Freedom Toast” and other nonsense.
I’m sure the French have been getting a good chuckle out of this, because it reveals striking ignorance about the English language itself. In a xenophobic attempt to purge “French” from the language and protest France’s lack of support for the American war effort, our leaders headed straight for the fast food.
Are these idiots even aware of the enormous number of English words are French in origin, thanks to Willie the Conquerer, 1066 and all that? (A short article about it.) Besides, what does anyone hope to accomplish in calling a chunk of deep-fried potato a “Freedom fry” rather than a “French fry?”
I’m sure Chirac, when he heard about this, called an emergency damage control planning session with all his advisors.
If Americans are still obsessed with “French” cooking terms (after all, “French fries” is short for “French fried potatoes”), then they need to come up with new terms for:
- blanch (Freedom remove skin?)
- saute (Freedom fry over high heat?)
- fondue (Freedom melt?)
- puree (Freedom crush?)
- flambae (Freedom burn?)
The whole list of Arabic words in English is available here
And while these idiots are at it, why not purge all the Arabic words from English? After all the terrorists that started all this are mostly Arabic, so let’s chuck:
- admiral (Freedom big Navy leader man?)
- checkmate (Freedom inability to move your king?)
- coffee (Freedom Java — oh wait, do they support us?)
- spinach (Freedom Popeye veggie?)
- zenith (Freedom point in the sky which appears directly above the observer (definition from Wikipedia)?)
This dumbfounding nonsense reveals a basic ignorance of how language works and develops. There are very few words in English language that were “planned” in any way. Language generally just “happens,” like shit. (A list of how words “happen” can be found at wordorigins.org)
It reminds me of a young man who was spooked by the fact that rearranging the letters in “Santa” produces “Satan” — clear proof of the evil of Christmas. Still, we’re not alone. The French are just as worried about borrowed words creeping into French, as evidenced by the Acadamie Francaise. And Celine at Naked Translations has an amusing post about this.
Of course what sparked all this is the feeling in America of not being appreciated.
The ingratitude of the governments of Belgium, France and Germany boggles the mind. If it were not for the heroism of American soldiers during the Second World War, Hitler’s Third Reich would be in its eighth decade.
Poor us — we won World War Two for those spineless surrender monkeys and they should still be bowing to our wishes sixty years later. How dare they think for themselves now! Why, we’ve earned unquestioned support!