Making Groceries

A woman who went to school in New Orleans reports she was startled the first time she heard residents of the Crescent City talk about making groceries rather than buying them. Grant explains the French origins of that expression. This is part of a complete episode.

Transcript of “Making Groceries”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Maggie McFarlane in Indianapolis.

Hiya, Maggie.

Hello, Maggie. What’s going on?

Well, I just wanted to call in. I had a phrase I was curious to see if you guys knew about.

I came across a colloquial phrase in New Orleans while I went to college there a couple years ago.

That was making groceries.

That was the phrase exchanged instead of shopping for groceries or going to a grocery store, buying groceries.

New Orleanians would say they made groceries or they’re making groceries.

And what happened the first time you heard that?

I wasn’t sure what they were really talking about.

I said, so you’re going to make groceries?

What are you making?

Maybe it was referencing a meal.

Are you going to make, you know, red beans for dinner or something down there?

But no, it was actually just the shopping that was making groceries.

It’s fabulous.

And are you from Indiana originally?

I’m originally from Tampa, but I live in Indianapolis.

After college, I moved up here.

Okay.

So you’ve been all over.

Well, you know, this is one of those things that people from Louisiana,

And particularly New Orleans, are proud of.

It’s one of the things that they’re very conscious of being a part of,

Their local dialect, their local language, and their color,

To say that they make groceries.

And what it is, it’s a calque.

You ever heard that word, Maggie?

I haven’t.

It’s C-A-L-Q-U-E.

A calque is when you translate a phrase from one language to another word for word rather than for idea for idea.

And in this case, the French expression, and as you know, New Orleans and all down in there has all got the French heritage for hundreds of years.

The French expression is faire des courses, which means to run errands, or they use it actually to mean to go grocery shopping.

And F-A-I-R-E is the verb in that phrase, and in French it can either mean to do or to make.

And so what it is is a kind of repeated bad translation from French into English.

It’s like in Spanish when you say, I’m going to go shopping, you say, hacer compras.

Exactly like that.

I’m going to make purchases, make groceries.

How interesting.

Well, thank you for sharing that.

Maggie, thank you so much for a diverting call.

This is very interesting.

Thank you.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you’d like to make conversation with us, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673 or email us.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.

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