Talk:idée du siècle

RFD discussion: January–February 2021

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idée du siècle

PUC, the article creator, was doubting the idiomacity. I also do, betting "du siècle" can be used with anything. Alexfromiowa (talk) 19:58, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Indeed: l’affaire du siècle,^[1][2][3] le procès du siècle,^[4][5][6] le scandale du siècle,^[7][8][9] and so on. Rather than deleting, Move with some obvious adaptations to la chose du siècle – in which “la chose” together is a placeholder, so do not omit the article – or to du siècle, with some illustrative usexes.  --Lambiam 21:11, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

@Lambiam: I don't what I was smoking when I created this, and I support moving it, of course. Which is, in fact, what I've just done, except I've moved it to du siècle instead. I'm not convinced by the option you suggest; we don't really make use of placeholders, perhaps because we still don't have a good, consistent system for doing so (if only you submitted your proposal to a vote!).

Also, I wonder if this is somehow related to mal du siècle, which imo must be understood slightly differently: "the disease of this century" = "the disease that is most characteristic of this century". PUC – 22:29, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

It is a different meaning but somewhat related in that there is an implicit superlative or notion of prevalence or preeminence. A difference may be that this use is not hyperbolic, but it is sum-of-parts; you can also have “l’humeur de la décennie” and so on.  --Lambiam 22:46, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Yes, that's my understanding too. See also air du temps. (Funnily, both of these are used in English, and have German equivalents that are also used in English: mal du siècle = weltschmerz; air du temps = zeitgeist.) PUC – 22:55, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Does du siècle mean any more or less than English of the century? Vox Sciurorum (talk) 13:52, 24 January 2021 (UTC)

There is a substantive overlap. I think “le scandale du siècle” means just the same as “the scandal of the century”; probably a scandal that will be forgotten in a couple of years so that there is room for another scandal to occupy the spot. I am not sure that they are mutually intertranslatable in all idiomatic uses; translating “l’offre du siècle” – an extremely advantageous offer – as “the offer of the century” does not seem quite right.  --Lambiam 22:14, 24 January 2021 (UTC)

@Lambiam: What do you think of the current state of the entry? I'm not sure distinguishing two senses is warranted, nor that the label "informal" is appropriate, but from a translation standpoint I think it works pretty well. PUC – 07:54, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

Some further examination has convinced me that “the offer of the century”,^[10][11][12] especially in the form “the job offer of the century”,^[13][14][15] is perfectly idiomatic, so the senses can be merged, as in “of the century (biggest, greatest in living memory), best ever, of a lifetime, once-in-a-lifetime”. Not being a native speaker, I find it hard to judge the (in)formality of uses of the idiom, but all hype – both senses are hype – is somewhat informal. Some uses of “l’offre [d’emploi] du siècle” in francophone sources: [16], [17], [18].  --Lambiam 09:08, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

du siècle

Keep - Idiomatic phrase. Languageseeker (talk) 13:37, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

• Keep, now that this has been moved to du siècle. PUC – 14:15, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

• Kept Forever in your debt (talk) 11:20, 1 February 2021 (UTC)