"Funny bone" in French: not so funny

I just whacked my funny bone and oww did it hurt. Since I had just done the "Fun French words" section of this blog, I realized I didn't know how to say "funny bone" in French. None of us are actually Franco-French in my house, and I can't say it would normally come up in a conversation.

So I looked it up on WordReference (which by the way is a great resource), and it said that the informal translation was le petit juif (the little Jew). As in (this is the example given), "I accidentally hit my little Jew and my arm is still tingling." I think I'll be using le nerf ulnaire instead.

Comments

[Karen]

I love learning these little idioms which you would never learn in French class! I have to admit I was a bit incredulous when I read this one, so I checked it out myself. WordReference is great - and although I was disappointed that there was no discussion there, I did find an interesting one here: http://french.stackexchange.com/questions/3169/le-petit-juif-est-il-p%C3%A9joratif

[sedulia]

It says a lot that someone would even ask "Is this pejorative?" !!

[Anne]

Thanks for posting. And yet another eye roll for the supposedly sophisticated French.

I always found it odd that the end of line 7 is Villejuif. http://justanotheramericaninparis.blogspot.com/2011/04/confusion.html

[Sedulia]

I have been here so long, I had forgotten how strange "Villejuif" sounded to me at the beginning! I was curious so I just now looked it up. It turns out that Villejuif's name seems to have nothing to do with Jews, although folk etymology thinks it did.

This article from the town's own site says, "Tradition says that Villejuif was inhabited by Jews, thus its modern name. However, to this day no documents, traces, or archeological evidence has been found of any Jewish place of worship or synagogue. It appears that the actual origin was from a Gallo-Roman domain (villa) on the plain, which belonged to a man named Juvius or Juveus, giving, by derivation, today's Villejuif."

http://www.ville-villejuif.fr/brochure_nouv_arrivants.pdf

And this names site says, ""The name Villejuif probably does NOT come from 'town of the Jews,' but simply from Villa judea, i.e. villa belonging to Juvius, the name of a Gallo-Roman who [could have] owned a villa there.

"The Abbé Lebeuf has another hypothesis. He thinks that the true Latin name is Villa Gesedum, or Villa Iosedum. This name would have come from a certain village named Gesedum, which existed in the diocese of Paris in the 10th century, although it is impossible today to be sure of its location.

"Another idea comes from J.A. Buchon. 'People have tried to derive this name from Villa Judœa, and they've concluded that it was an ancient residence of Jews; but it appears that the word villa Judœa, used in titles of the 13th century, is due to an incorrect opinion; it comes from a corruption of the words ville Jude, ville Juliette, from the name of a saint whose relics are revered there. However, the idea that Jews, enriched from usury, had acquired almost all the domains of this place, and that many were burned there, prevailed so much that on modern maps and route plans, this town is called Ville-juif."

http://gmidf.skyrock.com/2121337185-VILLEJUIF-ONOMASTIQUE-ET-HERALDIQUE.html

[chrissoup]

Thanks for the information about Villejuif. I noticed it recently and was wondering about it.

[so offensive... not]

what's offensive about calling it a little jew?

[Sedulia]

Seriously?