News today of a woman who repelled a black bear with a plant from her garden underscores the danger to Americans living in remote areas and not able to use the correct English (or in this case, French words).
This story, from BBC news, tells of a woman living in Montana, who earlier today encountered a bear in her garden (Americans call that a 'yard', but I'll leave that alone for now).
The bear was making a move on the woman's dog, and when she tried to intervene, the bear bit her leg! So, what else is a plucky Montanan woman supposed to do: she grabbed a COURGETTE (and this is where it gets tricky for Americans) from her garden / yard, and threw it at the bear, which then ran off.
Like thousands of other European words that my new country-folk mangle and mis-use ('Chaise Lounge' anyone?), instead of using the word passed down since Medieval times, they use zucchini rather than the perfectly acceptable "courgette". They of course might explore the conundrum of why they ignored one European word already in common use, and picked a less well known Italian word, but by then the bear would have finished the job.
It reminds me of an old friend in Denver who would almost choke himself trying to say "croissant", and instead copy his fellow Coloradans by saying "croy-sant".
The story concludes by saying "Authorities were still attempting to track down the bear on Thursday". Apparently (and this is still awaiting confirmation) the bear had strayed over from Canada, where they speak French as well as English, knew what a courgette was, and was hanging around waiting for the aubergine (aka eggplant, in America), and melon (squash, in America) to complete his salad.
A final word of warning: if you read in an American paper that someone was "driving their sedan on the pavement and encountered an Asian woman waving a walker", it does not mean someone was in an Elizabethan horse-drawn carriage being pulled along the sidewalk and met someone of indeterminate origin, but clearly not white, arm in arm with another person who was helping her walk.
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