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ArchivesRe: The name Vairette
in reply to a message by YourSensei
Vair is a French word meaning soft leather (kid) and I was taught that the original Cinderella story by Perrot was really about a kid slipper (vair) and not a glass slipper (verre). "-ette" is a diminutive and so my guess would be "little soft soft leather/kid". Very tactile!
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The story about Cinderella was written when the word "vair" wasn't still (or longer?) used in the French language, so the thing about kid slippers is a myth. It was indeed glass slippers. But vair still means "soft leather", of course.
Short and sweet like Swedish summer....
Short and sweet like Swedish summer....
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I think the theory is that it is precisely because vair was an obsolete word in French is why Perrault, the author of the most famous version of Cinderella, confused it with verre. But there does seem to be a lot of disagreement on whether or not he did this deliberately.
Cinderella is actually the oldest one of the "fairy tales" still popular in the Western world. The oldest version of it found so far is from China in the 9th century A.D., so the basic tale is over a thousand years old.
Cinderella is actually the oldest one of the "fairy tales" still popular in the Western world. The oldest version of it found so far is from China in the 9th century A.D., so the basic tale is over a thousand years old.
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That's fascinating to know. Thank you!
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More on Cinderella
Here: http://snipurl.com/vhtn.
The "fairy godmother" was originally "Cinderella"'s dead mother's spirit, who originally came back in the form of a fish (later, the Grimm Brothers had the mother inhabit a tree) to aid her daughter. Personally, I think Perrault's exchanging of the mother's spirit with a fairy godmother who appears out of nowhere destroys an integral bit of logic in the story... but that's all off topic, isn't it? ;-)
Miranda
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
Here: http://snipurl.com/vhtn.
The "fairy godmother" was originally "Cinderella"'s dead mother's spirit, who originally came back in the form of a fish (later, the Grimm Brothers had the mother inhabit a tree) to aid her daughter. Personally, I think Perrault's exchanging of the mother's spirit with a fairy godmother who appears out of nowhere destroys an integral bit of logic in the story... but that's all off topic, isn't it? ;-)
Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
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