Nikki Scott-Despaigne Jul 5, 2016:

@Tony Yes, of course, it's very French. Any adjective can be "nounified"!

Nikki Scott-Despaigne Jul 5, 2016:

"dans la lune" "Miles away"?

Tony M Jul 5, 2016:

@ Nikki You wrote "I also agree with Phil about is being odd in a noun form."

I think it is only consistent with the FR usage of an adjective as a noun, which only works in EN in a few cases like 'the poor [people]' — so they would quite naturally do the same with any other adjective, even an EN one!

I find the same thing (which gives me a contsant headache!) with one of my regular customers, who refers to certain groups of people as things like 'retardataires' and other similarly untranslatable adjective-nouns !

Joan Berglund (asker) Jul 5, 2016:

Goofus I had to check, they were old when I was a kid. But I guess they are still going. But it loks like they dont' for for the UK - Is Gomer Goof something you read as children?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlights_for_Children#Regula...

Margaret Morrison Jul 5, 2016:

Klutz maybe? Or too American... maybe Mr Bean, as more British?
And for dans la lune I think away with the fairies, but I think calling someone Tinkerbell would suggest more that they were fey or camp not clumsy or socially awkward IMO.

Nikki Scott-Despaigne Jul 5, 2016:

Keep the original? Might I suggest that you keep the same name on this one? After all, this is French specific and as this Wikipedia source shows, the name does have a particular meaning with a play on "gaffe" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_(comics)
Maybe keep the original and use a footnote? Not a great fan of footnotes myself, but it would be nice to keep something of the Frenchiness of the original, even from an academic paper. I've read hundreds of them in the past few years. Currently studying/training to become a Clinical Neuropsychologist in France and there are lots of translated papers out there. I've read a lot around autism and TDAH (ADHD) and when there are country specific references, it is nice to keep them.


As for "out" "Out" means "out of it" in French, zoned out as Phil puts it. I also agree with Phil about is being odd in a noun form.

philgoddard Jul 5, 2016:

Tinkerbell might work, the idea being that they flit around from one thing to another.

philgoddard Jul 5, 2016:

British people won't have heard of Goofus and Gallant, but goofus sounds like a portmanteau of goof and doofus.

Tony M Jul 5, 2016:

@ Phil How recent is 'Goofus'? I have to confess I have never heard of him in the UK, but maybe it is something from the last 20 years since I've left?

I'm not too sure about your interpretation of 'out' — if this were US EN, I'd agree with you 100%, but bearing in mind this is actually FR, I can't say I've ever heard it used in FR with that sort of meaning...

philgoddard Jul 5, 2016:

British people will understand goofus, but I'm not sure it's a good description for an ADHD sufferer. And I don't think "out" means extrovert: it means zoned out, or out there with the fairies. But it doesn't work as a nickname, it's more of a description.

Joan Berglund (asker) Jul 5, 2016:

@Phil Hmm.. maybe Dennis the Menace for "out" and "Goofus" for Gaston Lagaffe?

philgoddard Jul 5, 2016:

Here is the British Dennis the Menace:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_the_Menace_and_Gnasher
Funnily enough, he has no connection with the US one, but made his debut five days later, in 1951.

Tony M Jul 5, 2016:

@ Asker 'Dennis the Menace' is certainly well-known in the UK — though dated, I don't know if the comic sereis is still current, but I remember it from when i was a kid in the mid '60s!

As for 'out', I don't think the intended meaning is at all 'out of it' — that sounds more like it would belong in your second group. I would see it as more 'outgoing', 'in-your-face', the general idea of 'extravert'; possibly even 'out' in the same sense as people who are openly gay (etc.), but without the specific connotation of sexual orientation — the term is now applied to all sorts of other fields in which someone might be a 'self-confessed...'

Joan Berglund (asker) Jul 5, 2016:

@Phil That actually looks like an interesting book. So, I would add Dennis the Menace to the list of possible translations for Gaston Lagaffe, is the character well known in the UK? I'd like to work space cadet in somewhere too, it's such a good one. Does it make sense for "out"? I just have that as "out of it" so far.

philgoddard Jul 5, 2016:

Some suggestions here http://books.google.com/books?id=fI6oUHy4TcAC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA...