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| | ==Textual notes== | | ==Textual notes== |
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| − | ===Bonjour, la Burgonmuche / Good day, Bougonmuche===
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| − | I can't detemine if the old woman, Madame Bougon, reacts to the gamin's harassment because she knows the meaning of the "-muche" in "Bougonmuche", or if it's only obvious to her that he's making fun of her (since Hugo shows us it is obvious to her). According to an unconfirmed source, adding the suffix -''muche'' to any word is a rare French slang, making any word the suffic -''muche'' is attached to more incomprehensible. <ref> "-muche", https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-muche </ref> "Muche" also has a long history in Middle-English, and signified 'much', 'great', 'large', and 'magnitude'. <ref> Stratmann, Francis Henry. ''A Middle-English Dictionary Containing Words Used By English Writers From The Twelfth To The Fifteenth Century''. New edition revised, &c. by Henry Bradley. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1891. Page 438. Original copy held at Havard University Library. https://books.google.com/books?id=4rIVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false </ref> This certainly would have been an insult to the Madame Bougon if this word's English meaning was understood by early 19th century poor Parisians. Yet, l'ancien langage françois provides another possibility. "Muche" and related words, such as "muce", "mucer", "mucier", "muchette", "mucheure", and "muchier" mean "hide" or "hiding place". <ref> La Curne De Sainte-Palaye, ''Dictionnaire Historique De L'Ancien Langage François Depuis Son Origene Jusqu'au Siècle De Louis XIV, Tome Septième (Volume 7)''. Edited by L. Favre and M. Pajot. Paris (Quai Malaquais, 15): H. Champion, Libraire, 1880. Page 446. Original held by Harvard University. https://books.google.com/books?id=FnsaAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false </ref> In the scene, Madame Bougon was concealed by the darkness, which Hugo duly points out, so the -''muche'' suffix is very likely Hugo's expression of the gamin's wit in stating a light joke in the darkness.
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| | ==Citations== | | ==Citations== |
| | <references /> | | <references /> |
