Is this a rude word in French as well?

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The word is fairly innocuous in English but is sometimes used, not by me, obviously, as a vulgar description of the female pudenda. :expressionless:

Now that I have whetted your interest, or weeded out those of you who have no wish to be further sullied, I will tell you the story.

A week ago, one of the aides soignante, Perrine, who speaks a little broken English, asked me in French if there was a ‘boite’ she could use to keep together Fran’s various tubes, brushes and potions etc… As I rarely chuck anything away I have a wide range of such things and produced a small one just right for the purpose. It was duly charged and placed on a shelf in her bedroom.

I was also asked to get a particular cream from the pharmacy with an ordonnance from the doctor, which I duly did, and placed it in the receptacle previously mentioned. Yesterday Perrine arrived with Melodie and they set about their tasks of looking after Fran while I, and Christine, the aide from the other organisation who was still here, chatted away to each other in the salle, in English of course. Soon
the other 2 came into the room and Perrine asked me if I had indeed brought the cream. Momentarily forgetting to switch back to French I said ‘yes, it is in your box’.

Before I could correct myself to speak in French there was an ear splitting scream of feined insult and outrage from Perrine who simultaneously dissolved into helpless laughter. ‘My box?’ she cried, ‘MY box?’ clutching her lower abdomen. Christine and I could not believe our ears but then could not resist, for we both understood the reference, displaying the same mirth, more in surprise that a foreigner had taken, what would otherwise to us be an innocent remark, to be used in its lowest form of vulgarity.

After they had gone and we had re-composed ourselves we wondered if, while the word ‘boite’ to a French person meant just that, but in French vulgar slang when the English word was used, it meant something quite different.

So what say others and we all know who this is aimed at really, don’t we @vero ? :rofl:

Finally, if any young, or old, innocent does not know what the hell I am talking about, I could relate a very vulgar joke prevalent in Australia after 1967 when the then Prime Minister, Harold Holt, disappeared presumed drowned. But I will desist unless pressed. :innocent:

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Oh dear I’ve obviously led a sheltered life - boîte to me means a box or a tin, or a nightclub and that’s it, and to me box in English used in French means a horse’s loose-box or a compartment.
I discovered box in English had another meaning in my late 30s after my youngest daughter was born and some English people I met were rude about her (imho) beautiful classical Greek name. (It’s Pxndxrx, I’ve written it like that so it isn’t searchable).

Oh go on tell the vulgar joke.

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That being so, it is even more a mystery, Perrine’s helpless laughter and faux affront is hard to explain.

Harold Holt went swimming and, believed caught in a rip tide on very rough day, was never seen again. He was soon declared dead and his successor took the oath. Two years later she remarried, this time to Jeff Bate and the joke that did the rounds in the circles in which I moved there at the time was:

'What’s Jeff Bate doing these days? ’ Answer ‘Oh he’s rooting (another rude Ozzie word) around in Harold Holt’s old toolbox’

Yes, I know vulgar, misogynistic, and horrible, but you did ask. :blush:

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Maybe a regional word. But no idea. I am with @vero on this but would add garage for box as seen in so many ads. For me boite would be box, container, garage or night club.

Want that dirty joke please :grin:

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Too late, you’ve already got it. :rofl:

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You beat me to reply

Great joke. Like it :rofl::rofl:

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Mean but funny.

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I think it’s a rude word in American English, with the meaning that you thought, but it’s usually derogatory I think.

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In the late 90s a female colleague told me a related joke involving Naomi Campbell and an aeroplane crash. TBH it’s a very minority-use word, and although a few will recognise the usage, it’s not something that has endured into popular culture. Probably for the best really.

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Remember that one, and will now have to try to forget it again.

I believe in Dutch the two words can be interchageable.

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‘Kont’ in Flemish means arse. Hence the expression meaning to be lucky ‘hij is op z’n kont in de boter gevallen’.

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I remember my mother telling me that my youngest brother’s baby had been christened Flora, adding “I hope that when the child goes to school they don’t call her Marge.”

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I had an aunt called Flora. No jokes about her name as far as I know.

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We had a Flora at one of our factories, one “wit” asked if she was spreadable, to which she replied, yes with certain people but that he was far too pig ugly for that :laughing:

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That is exactly the way to deal with that, a combakatcha, rather than scurrying to the boss crying ‘bully’.

Seeing as we have obviously collected the right crowd, I must tell you about a film I saw on Netflix the other night. It starred octogenarians, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda and was called ‘Our Souls At Night’.

Yes, that was my first thought too, as was Christine’s when I told her, but I googled the film and apparently Netflix were advised by their UK representatives to change the title because of what it would immediately convey to a British audience, They refused. :rofl: :joy:

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I imagine her schooldays were pre-low fat spread - and after Flora MacDonald?

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@DrMarkH
Indeed :slightly_smiling_face:

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The Australians certainly have a way with vulgar expressions. I remember Barry Humphries Private Eye character - Barry McKenzie - used lots for vomiting - liquid laugh, technicolour yawn, and I heard a new one yesterday - I overtrusted a fart.

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So, in light of the above, Is there a French equivalent for ‘thinking outside the box’ that isn’t a literal translation?

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I love Bazza and have the books :grin: