Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
béret d\'écaille
English translation:
scalloped beret
Added to glossary by
Miranda Joubioux (X)
Apr 11, 2011 13:39
13 yrs ago
French term
béret d'écaille
French to English
Art/Literary
Architecture
Architecture magazine
Target = UK
Despite this being an article about the architecture of a certain type of housing in the Pyrénées, I've chosen to put this in clothing deliberately, since I feel it is here that I will find the answer.
De ses toits d’ardoises anthracite, on dirait six ou sept mille bérets d’écaille coiffant un troupeau pétrifié.
Would this be a Rastafarian style beret?
Target = UK
Despite this being an article about the architecture of a certain type of housing in the Pyrénées, I've chosen to put this in clothing deliberately, since I feel it is here that I will find the answer.
De ses toits d’ardoises anthracite, on dirait six ou sept mille bérets d’écaille coiffant un troupeau pétrifié.
Would this be a Rastafarian style beret?
Change log
Apr 11, 2011 20:13: B D Finch changed "Field" from "Other" to "Art/Literary" , "Field (specific)" from "Textiles / Clothing / Fashion" to "Architecture"
Proposed translations
5 hrs
Selected
little "hats"/"berets" decorated with "fish scales"/"scallops"
As an English speaker I would associate the word hats with rooftops if I were to talk figuratively. I think if you carry over the term "beret" into an English text it may not give the same idea, but then again, if you want to make the point that this is actually France being described, then "beret" could work just as well because the English do identify strongly with "beret" as being a French hat. (So this explains my two options).
As for scallops, I have added this as an alternative as this seems to be the shape seen on some roof slating which is pretty to look at, and the term sounds a lot prettier. The term "fish scales" does not always have pretty connotations to English readers and scallops may work better. But this website shows how "fish scale pattern" can be used to describe architectural detail.
http://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/fish-detail_scallop-shells_2...
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Note added at 5 hrs (2011-04-11 19:06:27 GMT)
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You could also say:
"Six or seven thousand berets covered in SCALLOP SHELLS"
If you look at the tenth photo down on this web page of slate designs on roofs, you can see the scalloped effect it sounds like is being referred to:
http://www.jenkinsslate.com/install_styles.htm
Also a link to "scallop shells" if you need any inspiration:
http://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/fish-detail_scallop-shells_2...
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Note added at 5 hrs (2011-04-11 19:07:20 GMT)
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OR:
"Six or seven thousand berets FINISHED in SCALLOP SHELLS..."
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Note added at 5 hrs (2011-04-11 19:14:57 GMT)
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On the other hand, if each ROOF is being defined as a scallop, rather than each SLATE being defined as a scallop, you could say:
"Six or seven thousand scallop shell hats keeping in a place a terrified..." (... here you could move the idea slightly to horses if the "terrified herd" does not carry over, i.e. "scallop shell hats keeping in place an UNRULY MANE" http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mane)
As for scallops, I have added this as an alternative as this seems to be the shape seen on some roof slating which is pretty to look at, and the term sounds a lot prettier. The term "fish scales" does not always have pretty connotations to English readers and scallops may work better. But this website shows how "fish scale pattern" can be used to describe architectural detail.
http://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/fish-detail_scallop-shells_2...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2011-04-11 19:06:27 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
You could also say:
"Six or seven thousand berets covered in SCALLOP SHELLS"
If you look at the tenth photo down on this web page of slate designs on roofs, you can see the scalloped effect it sounds like is being referred to:
http://www.jenkinsslate.com/install_styles.htm
Also a link to "scallop shells" if you need any inspiration:
http://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/fish-detail_scallop-shells_2...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2011-04-11 19:07:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
OR:
"Six or seven thousand berets FINISHED in SCALLOP SHELLS..."
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2011-04-11 19:14:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
On the other hand, if each ROOF is being defined as a scallop, rather than each SLATE being defined as a scallop, you could say:
"Six or seven thousand scallop shell hats keeping in a place a terrified..." (... here you could move the idea slightly to horses if the "terrified herd" does not carry over, i.e. "scallop shell hats keeping in place an UNRULY MANE" http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mane)
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Scallop was the word I needed. I think this is the image that is being conveyed. Many thanks to everyone for your help on this one."
9 mins
seashell beret
Not Rasta - the beret is a traditional form of headgear in the Pyrenees, as elsewhere in France, but the locals often don't acknowledge that and anyway the Pyreneen beret is larger and floppier and more or less exclusively worn by men. The Pyrenees also link the Med and the Atlantic coasts, so you could decide that a special form of seashell is required: oystershells perhaps, as there are plenty of them at both ends of the chaine.
Peer comment(s):
neutral |
Sandra Mouton
: Écaille doesn't refer to seashell here. See discussion entry.
51 mins
|
No, as I have now realised, it refers to the fishscale pattern of the slates. It certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with tortoiseshell.
|
57 mins
French term (edited):
béret d\'écaille
berets, laid fishscale style, topping a petrified herd
I don't think the importance is really the kind of beret, although they are big and black in the Pyrenees, but how the roofs resemble berets overlapping to give an overall scaly appearance. Lots of architectural texts talk about slate roofs being fish-scale / fishscale; you might use "tortoiseshell" however the color it evokes for me is light brown and not black like anthracite/slate roofs.
Peer comment(s):
disagree |
Sandra Mouton
: Écaille would be plural and preceded by "en" and not "d'" if it referred to the disposition of the bérets like scales on fish skin.
4 mins
|
agree |
B D Finch
: I like that idea, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to fit the grammar of "bérets d’écaille". Beret-like roofs made of fish-scale pattern slates. I find the number puzzling and wonder where there are 6-7000 slate roofs.
32 mins
|
+1
7 hrs
little hats overlapping like fish scales
that's how it strikes me
Discussion
Merci à toi et également a BD Finch pour vos liens. Ca aide à visualiser.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10647979
http://www.batiancien-ariege.com/Nouvel-article,364.html
are anything like a sequined beret.
Please excuse my having re-assigned the category of your question, but the fashion angle seemed to be leading to completely wrong answers, from me too. The preceding sentence that you now give confirms my opinion of what this is really about. In the neighbouring department of Aude, the landscape and architecture is more typically Mediterranean with reddish rock, cypresses, houses with white walls and red canal-tiled roofs. By contrast, the mountainous part of Ariège is characterised by cooler, rainier weather, lusher vegetation, grey stone and heavy slate-roofed houses.
The sentence preceding this on is :
On n’y voit ni tuiles rouges ni maisons blanches, mais de graves demeures grises aux volets pastels, parfois d’un rose passé.
IMO the writer is describing the houses saying they look like a petrified herd wearing berets.
I found an image for beret d'écaille
http://www.souleiado.com/beret-paillette-or
I think scalloped might be appropriate. Anything to do with fish scales doesn't sound quite right in this region.
http://www.dreamstime.com/fish-scale-design-on-wall-schachen...
"Ici, ardoises grises rustiques calibrées, mordorées et taillées en écaille de poisson. ..."
www.les-ardoisiers.com/ardoise-couverture.htm
"... sous une toiture à deux pentes recouverte d'ardoises taillées en écailles, ... Unique dans l'architecture d'Ariège: nombre de bâtiments sont couverts ..."
archilibre.org/tradition/archidariege/promenade
They are, indeed, "scalloped" as the typical pattern uses slates with a curved bottom edge.
@Leslie I had assumed that the sentence was written in correct French. In which case, my interpretation is as follows: in the previous sentence, something is described (perhaps the surrounding mountains). This something, when seen from the slate roofs, looks like a petrified flock coiffed with six or seven thousands tortoiseshell berets.
If however the sentence is intended to describe the slate roofs as tortoiseshell berets with the petrified sheep being the houses themselves, the sentence should read "On dirait que ses toits d'ardoises anthracite sont six ou sept mille bérets d'écaille coiffant un troupeau pétrifié" or "De ses toits d'ardoise anthracite, on dirait qu'ils sont..."
Perhaps the asker could provide the sentence immediately before this one.
I thought at first that the "de" meant "about" but in this case it would be "on dirait que...".
By the way, "écaille" as a material, as is the case here, never refers to seashell but only to tortoiseshell (see "lunettes d'écaille", "boîte en écaille").
About the basquitude du béret, of course no specific region can claim the exclusive in béret-related matters, it's just that "béret basque" is a set phrase referring to a style of béret.
"Écaille" singular seems to refer to tortoiseshell.