It is NOT called a 'menage'!

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Mondy

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Why do people insist upon calling the place where horses are schooled a 'menage'?

Oxford English Dictionary: A domestic establishment, or its members collectively; a household, a home. In later use also: the parties involved in a romantic or sexual relationship regarded as forming a domestic establishment; the relationship itself.

Ie. NOT a riding school, which, if one desires to be fancy, can be called a 'manege'.

I am so tired of people affecting a bogus prestige by using words they don't even know what mean.

I thought the fashion for dropping French words in for every second breath waned after Chaucer in the fourteenth century. Apparently ridiculous affectation has a loooong afterlife in the equestrian community.

Summary: 'Manege' NOT 'menage', NOT 'menage' but 'MANEGE'.

That is all for now.
 
Mondy said:
I thought the fashion for dropping French words in for every second breath waned after Chaucer in the fourteenth century. Apparently ridiculous affectation has a loooong afterlife in the equestrian community.
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Having a sig in Latin would not be a ridiculous affectation I presume?
 
Ring does just fine for me, or pen, or corral, or paddock. Who cares what it is called, I don't:)

I think the word menage has been around for so long that people (mis)use it because that's what they were told it was called, why question it? :)

I doubt very much whether any snob value is intended nowadays when having a school/arena/ring, whatever tag you wish to give it, is hardly unusual. :)
I know that the children at our PC called it a menage, purely because that was how it was (rightly, or wrongly) referred to. Those that knew the difference gave up and those that didn't know didn't care anyhow.
 
jemima_too said:
Having a sig in Latin would not be a ridiculous affectation I presume?[

:D Touche !

(sans accent because I don't know how to do that:( )

But, I do know what the Latin sig translates as, much less pretentious to merely say "Down with hyperflexion, get rid of it!"

Is the word hypocrite french? ;)
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LMFAO :D, we all know it's called a skool, pomposinouess cleverdickinitus, latin, big kin deal, nobody else understands it so it's a worthless language, try ordering a pizza or your shopping in latin, bet it comes with a turd topping ;)
 
I'm from Quebec, Canada and riding lessons were in French (LOL, no easy feat when your from an English family but now I'm bilingual!!) and that is what the instructor called the menage. "Fait du menage" (my apologies for my written French, it's not quite up to scratch as my spoken Quebecois French), means "to work" so an appropriate name for a place where you will be doing some work (lol, hopefully! :) )
 
Arghhh. This is not one of my pedantic foibles but... manège ROFL!

I get round it by sadly not having one.

Mta. I've started keeping a spellings file for when pedants are about.
 
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:D :D :D
I don't know how it is in France, but in Québec, "ménage" refers to your household cleaning, etc. "Manège" is the school for horses. I've often wondered why forummers appear to prefer housework to schooling, and to what uses they put their horses during this cleaning. :p

OP, word in siggy should be "Hyperflexionem", if you want to be accurate...3rd declension, accusative... :D
 
Language moves on and you can safely say manege has definitely lost out to menage. In the same way that, no doubt, people were scandalised when the 'e' was dropped from olde I think there are times when you just need to go with the flow :)
 
If I want to call it Le Sandy de menage avec la fence..I bloody well will!! (and I realise thats not frenchy correct but you get the point!)

I don't give a stuff what people think is grammatically correct....school, menage, manege, ring, arena.....who gives a rats a&se!!
 
It may well not be spelt Menage, but that's most certainly how it's pronounced. Correct pronunciation being everything, as we all know! :rolleyes:

Who gives a stuff, anyway? ;)

Alec.
 
0ldmare said:
Language moves on and you can safely say manege has definitely lost out to menage. In the same way that, no doubt, people were scandalised when the 'e' was dropped from olde I think there are times when you just need to go with the flow :)
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Absolutely! If language didn't evolve we'd still be speaking like wot Chaucer did innit?
 
It's not actually pronounced the same...

I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, a great strength of the English language has always been its free assimilation of words from other languages; on the other hand, being learnèd for being learnèd's sake (accents deliberate!) is often annoying. I have to translate late mediaeval Latin, where the authors are often trying to legitimise their points of view by expressing them in the most grammatically complicated way possible, and that's a royal pain in the butt to translate.

And no, Pedantic, I wouldn't try to order a pizza in Latin---it is, however, an essential language for my job! :)
 
Guys sorry but an arena is NOT called a menage in France nor are they pronounced the same in French. A manege over here is a covered or indoor arena, a carriere pour chevaux is an outdoor arena. Ask your builder for a menage and you'll be getting more than you bargained for.

They are pronounced entirely differently, pretty much as they are written.

As far as I know manege is a word assimilated into English (and Greek by the way) to indicate arena, menage is often misused in English to indicate arena. "Menage a trois" is also assimilated into English (and Greek by the way) to mean the same as the French!
 
I point blank refuse (even if it is correct ;) ) to call a sand school a 'manege'. It may be a petty tiny rebellion on my part but I once had a strip torn off me by a little Hitler type when I said 'menage'. :rolleyes:
 
Latin is a static language, English is constantly evolving.

I suggest that the OP considers this, the suitability of language for different situations and the effect it has on this forum's reputation for being bitchy.
 
If the OP wants to start using a bastardised quote from Cato the Elder perhaps they may be better served on another 'Forum'

:) :)

Fossor ero fossor haud res qua they es
 
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