When I first saw the word, I wondered if there is supposed to be an accent aigu (é) at the end of it, especially since the pronounciation indicates one. Without the accent aigu it would be pronounced, re-shersh

I like the word, though!

Have you ever heard it used anywhere?

Never heard it used! It's 100% French, isn't it. Some English dictionaries don't use the accent, some do. I should have used it as both my Webster's and my Random House do use it. Mawson's dictionary of foreign terms does also.

re·cher·ché [ruh-SHAIR-shey, ruh-shair-SHEY; Fr. ruh-sher-SHEY]

It is a beautiful and useful word, however some might think it to be rather recherché itself.

Today there is another term that English has adopted from the french. It is a funny one:

ha-ha noun

A fence or wall sunk in a ditch so as not to obstruct the view. It may also be a ditch one side of which is a retaining wall.

"The ha-ha is a feature in the landscape gardens laid out by Charles Bridgeman, the originator of the ha-ha, according to Horace Walpole (Walpole 1780) and by William Kent and was an essential component of the "swept" views of Capability Brown." -wikipedia


A double-sided ha-ha would be scooped out on both sides of the wall/fence.

- Webster's New World Dictionary
- http://www.reference.com/search?q=ha-ha A good explantion is there.

This time we have a Russian word that has made it into English:

babushka (buh - BOOSH - kuh), noun

1. a woman's scarf tied under the chin
2. a grandmother

In Russian, "grandmother" (never headscarf); the word is the dimunitive for baba old woman.

I had an aunt who was "Baba". Her husband was "Guido" He was Russian, she Ukrainian.

Was "Baba" an affectionate nickname for your aunt? "Guido" sounds Italian. So your mother is Ukrainian too?

Yes, they were both affectionate terms. I wrote Guido but it was actually pronounced, Gee-doh, with a hard G. I thought that if I wrote it, Gido that the reader would think "soft g".

My mother, yes, was born in Canada to Ukrainian immigrant parents. They came from Austria just after the turn of the century, when the government was giving away quarter parcels of land away to anyone who would homestead them. Grandma was born in a village just outside of Vienna and I think that my grandfather was born in Germany, in Brandenburg. I'd have to go look it up again. But they were both Ukrainian. Ukrainians were traditionally peasant people, not much better than slaves in Europe, so many of them came to Canada at that time, hoping to make a life for their families.

Their religion was Greek Orthodox. I remember them as a stoic, hardworking people.

Talking about the Ukrainians... it's peryhe for lunch for me today (perogies)

Many Americans have ties with Europe. My dau. said she'd like to move to France. After thinking about it a day or so I began to feel like we are stuck out here in 'the sticks' in North America. A long way from civiliztion! From Paris it would be short flights to London, Rome, Madrid, Petersburg, Vienna, Prague... AND Switzerland from whence both my Dad's paternal grandparents came; they then met and married in Ohio.