I was wondering the other day what the French word for lurker is, and so I spun around the francophone parts of the web [via Google] and a couple of definitions pop up:
lurker: mateur — Utilisateur d'un groupe de discussion Usenet, se contentant de lire sans contribuer. Voir delurk, Usenet.
[Glossaire RIFF]Badaud (n. m.) ou Badaude (n. f.): Internaute inscrit dans un forum de discussion et qui lit les articles sans jamais en publier.
[Glossaire Internet]
So, badaud or mateur. A peak inside my ancient Cassell's (one hundred years old this year) gave some interesting, pre-Internet English glosses for badaud: "ninny, booby; gazer, lounger, idler; cockney." My slightly younger Petit Larousse offered: "Niais, qui regarde tout, admire tout et crois tout ce qu'on lui dit." (Cute word that niais.) Both Gamillscheg and Meyer-Lübke point to badaud being a Provençal loanword (sometime in the 16th century). The latter gives the Vulgar Latin reconstructed root as *batare (Schallwort) "den Mund aufmachen." Badaud is glossed in German, Maulaffe 'inquisitive person, nosy parker.' The OED gives Low German as the origin of the verb to lurk and connects it with a Swedish dialectal word for bumpkin, lurka. (Oh, and the French gloss, mateur, in the first definition has a more risqué connotation.) There's also a nice interference going on between badaud and baud 'bps'.
[Addendum: Of course, if I'd looked at Jez's list which I'd mentioned earlier, I'd have seen badaud and the Galician mirón.]
Posted by jim at July 26, 2003 09:32 AM | TrackBack"More risqué connotation" being 'voyeur.' Really, we're not at high tea here.
Posted by: language hat on July 26, 2003 12:30 PMI just meant more than lurker, but now that I think of it, lurker has a bit of a sexual overtone, too. I guess that voyeur was too much of an anglicism? Peeper was out of the question, I suppose. High tea sounds good too me. CA or CT?
Posted by: jim on July 26, 2003 01:53 PMI don't really see that 'lurker' has any real sexual connotations. The word puts me more in mind of somebody skulking in the shadows, up to no good.
Posted by: Jez on July 26, 2003 04:26 PMI've always felt that lurker was pretty neutral in overall connotations, mainly because it was self-appointed label in most situations. Somebody who was more shy than dangerous or clueless, but the French, babaud, seems to have some doltishness mixed in with the nosy-parker-ness.
Posted by: jim on July 26, 2003 06:23 PMMater can mean to stare or eye someone, but never has positive connotations; it doesn't mean lurk at all.
Tapir or en tapinois are the closest equivalents to lurk, but unfortunately there's no noun to tag someone fond of the shadows. Perhaps the time is ripe for a neologism.
Badaud is good, but far more innocuous than lurker: it usually refers to someone who just watches the pageant without taking part.
Posted by: gail on July 27, 2003 02:31 AMFrom the Robert (2nd edition):
Badauder: Faire le badaud --> flâner, errer, muser.
Badaud, de badar 'regarder bouche bée', du latin populaire batare.
Le peuple de Paris est tant (sic) sot, tant badaud, et tant inepte de nature, qu'un bateleur, un porteur de rogatons, un mulet avec ses cymbales, un veilleux au milieu d'un carrefour assemblera plus de gens que ne ferait un bon prêcheur évangélique. (Rabelais)
Caractère du badaud --> Sottise, niaiserie.
Nous allâmes au Port-Royal où la badauderie des courtisans m'étonna plus que celle des bourgeois. (Cardinal de Retz)
Posted by: miladus on July 27, 2003 01:15 PMi.e. gawker et non pas lurker, mais tout aussi péjoratif.
Il y en a qui n'aime que regarder...
Posted by: gail on July 28, 2003 09:49 AMUne fois de plus, je ne comprends pas le choix de l'OQLF.... trop rapide sans doute. Je préfère de loin les traductions "rôdeur" ou "reluqueur" qui me semblent beaucoup plus naturelles.
Posted by: grande rousse on July 29, 2003 04:17 PM