Glossary of Terms

Beautiful Losers

1. Comradeship

French equivalent: "amitié" or "camaraderie"

Sentence from the novel: "Why did I have so deep a sense of comradeship with F.?" (p.20)

2. Assembly

French equivalent: "assemblée"

Sentence from the novel: "From the base of a monument, a well-known young filmmaker addressed the cheering assembly." (p.123) 

Note: The assembly was about Québec separatism which was a big part of Quebeckers' lives in the 1900s.

3. Throng

French equivalent: "foule"

Sentence from the novel: "History chooses whether Napoleon shall speak these words from a throne or to a throng, or from the window of a hut to a desolate sea!" (p.126)

Note: This passage of the book is also about the separation of Quebec that could have happened during the 1900s and the manifestations. 

4. Surrender

French equivalent: "abandon"

Sentence from the novel: "In 1964 History decrees, no, History commands that the English surrender this land, which they have loved so imperfectly, surrender it to the Frenchmen, surrender it to us!" (p.124)

5. Hysteria

French equivalent: "hystérie"

Sentence from the novel: "Hysteria is my classroom, F. said once" (p.57)

6. Midst 

French equivalent: "milieu"

Sentence from the novel:" the priest knew that her aunts would not resist any plan that removed the girl from the midst."(p.199)

7. Frayed

French equivalent: "effiloché"

Sentence from the novel: "Morning after morning the winter finds me alone among the frayed leaves, frozen snot and tears in my eyebrows." (p.138)

8. Linoleum

French equivalent : "linoléum"

Sentence from the Novel: "I urinate anywhere on the linoleum and I am pleased that nothing happens." (p.65)

9. Vaulted

French equivalent: "vouté"

Sentence from the novel: "Homage to the vaulted halls where we knelt face to face with the shit-enhaloed Accuser of the World."

10. Apparatus

French equivalent: "équipement" or "appareil"

Sentence from the novel: "I withheld certain vital items, an apparatus here, a fact there - but only because (yes this is closer to truth) I dreamed you would be greater than me." (p.168)