[AMRadio] L'anglais tel qu'on le parle [Was: Transmitter Efficiency]

Donald Chester k4kyv at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 24 23:06:34 EDT 2002



>From: "James M. Walker" <chejmw at acsu.buffalo.edu>

>NOPE WRONG AGAIN
>From the Oxford English Dictionary follows:
>     1. One who loves or is fond of; one who has a taste for anything.

> > We're supposed to be having FUN -
> > isn't the word Amateur derrived from the word "to love" :-)

> > Steve WA1QIX

Actually "amateur" is borrowed directly from French "lover" in the sense 
that hams are "lovers" of radio. (The word for "lover" in the sexual sense 
is "amant").  By extension, in English it has also taken on the sense of 
"one who cultivates a thing as a pastime" (from The Consise Oxford 
Dictionary).

I recall once seeing a mis-translation into English of the title of a book 
on amateur radio "La Radio Pour Amateurs" as "Radio for Lovers".

The word for "to love" is simply "aimer".

Don K4KYV


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