From the Dictionary of French Slang and Colloquial Expressions, edited by Henry Strutz:
AFANAF, adv. Fifty-fifty (from Eng. "half and half"). Et si on faisait afanaf? "How about our going Dutch?"
(Did you read that one with your best French accent thrown in for good measure? Go on. Try again. You know you want to. You know you need to.)
Gotta love a word that doesn't exist in English, describing something possibly of Dutch origin and included in a French dictionary.
Of course, when I tried to use this in a real live conversation with Hippy-Love Française, she looked at me like I had seven heads.
"Quoi? Tu veux dire 'moitié-moitié', oui?" ("What? You mean 'half and half', right?")
And so yet another attempt by me to sound authentic is nipped quickly in the bud. I'll just add that one to my ever growning list of guffaws and bumbling idiot questions I've got going on here. It's getting quite impressive.
3 comments:
May I question your French dictionary ? Never heard this before either...
But if you want to go even more slang-ish instead of moitié-moitié try moit'-moit' ;-)
I'm definately questioning the dictionary. I mean, come on! Someone who was formerly an associate proffessor of languages at SUNY and Alfred State College of Technology should know better, right? Though, old Henry does seem to nail the really bad words without a problem. But, heck, I could do that too after listening to some of the parents at school this past week! ;)
I'm dying of laughter imagining this incident with you and Hippy Love Francaise right now!
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