Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
le style vire-voltant
English translation:
revolutionary style; progressive style
Added to glossary by
Carol Gullidge
Feb 14, 2011 17:23
13 yrs ago
1 viewer *
French term
United Kingdom
poetically precise prose with... panache
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
le style vire-voltant
French to English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
Jean Cocteau/ the Belle Epoque
Poète, metteur en scène, dessinateur, dandy, il incarne à lui seul toute l’avant-garde de son époque,
il a autant d'admirateurs que d'ennemis, un vrai DETECTEUR DE TALENTS
il incarne ******le style VIRE-VOLTANT****** de ces années là
Dior écrit dans ses mémoires
" Le phare Jean Cocteau, éclairait tout, expliquait tout."
________________
I'm sure they aren't talking about twirling or pirouetting, so I guess this is a figurative use... But what exactly does it mean?
Purely because of Cocteau's many and varied artistic talents, I've provisionally got "eclectic", but obviously this is only a wild guess, for want of knowing the real meaning!
This is the script for a presentation, hence the generally brief sentences
If anyone can come up with a definitive explanation for "style virevoltant", I should be very grateful - many thanks!
PS, It only gets ONE G-hit!
il a autant d'admirateurs que d'ennemis, un vrai DETECTEUR DE TALENTS
il incarne ******le style VIRE-VOLTANT****** de ces années là
Dior écrit dans ses mémoires
" Le phare Jean Cocteau, éclairait tout, expliquait tout."
________________
I'm sure they aren't talking about twirling or pirouetting, so I guess this is a figurative use... But what exactly does it mean?
Purely because of Cocteau's many and varied artistic talents, I've provisionally got "eclectic", but obviously this is only a wild guess, for want of knowing the real meaning!
This is the script for a presentation, hence the generally brief sentences
If anyone can come up with a definitive explanation for "style virevoltant", I should be very grateful - many thanks!
PS, It only gets ONE G-hit!
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 | revolutionary style |
Lara Barnett
|
| 3 +2 | the erratic/mercurial style |
Evans (X)
|
| 4 +1 | twists and turns of style (of those years) |
B D Finch
|
| 3 +1 | heady eclecticism |
Martin Cassell
|
Change log
Feb 14, 2011 17:36: Stéphanie Soudais changed "Term asked" from " le style VIRE-VOLTANT" to " le style vire-voltant"
Proposed translations
3 hrs
Lara Barnett
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
Works in field
United Kingdom
www.lingocraft.co.uk
Native in: English (Variants: Irish, Singaporean, UK, South African, British, Scottish)
Works in: French to English, Italian to English, Romanian to English, and 2 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
4
Selected
revolutionary style
It sounds like this phrase is trying to say that this poet/metteur en scene turned the style of his era around as many great artists, writers etc are sometimes described as doing.
The dictionary website AudioEnglish.net describes "revolutionary" as:
"markedly new or introducing radical change"
http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/revolutionary.htm
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Note added at 3 hrs (2011-02-14 21:19:41 GMT)
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Revolution also described as:
"Revolution
-noun
...
4. a procedure or course, as if in a circuit, back to a starting point.
5. a single turn of this kind.
6. Mechanics .
a. a turning round or rotating, as on an axis.
b.a moving in a circular or curving course, as about a central point.
c. a single cycle in such a course..."
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/revolution
The dictionary website AudioEnglish.net describes "revolutionary" as:
"markedly new or introducing radical change"
http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/revolutionary.htm
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2011-02-14 21:19:41 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Revolution also described as:
"Revolution
-noun
...
4. a procedure or course, as if in a circuit, back to a starting point.
5. a single turn of this kind.
6. Mechanics .
a. a turning round or rotating, as on an axis.
b.a moving in a circular or curving course, as about a central point.
c. a single cycle in such a course..."
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/revolution
Example sentence:
"Cubism was a truly revolutionary style of modern art developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braques."
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thanks Lara, and everybody else! All of these suggestions are convincing in their own way, but the client went for "progressive style", and this comes the closest. I think perhaps "avant garde" would have worked as well, but didn't offer that!"
+2
13 mins
the erratic/mercurial style
Rather than "eclectic" I get the impression that by vire-voltant they mean a style that is changeable, erratic and all over the place.
Jean Cocteau himself seems to attract epithets such as mercurial, volatile and erratic, and I have a feeling you could use any of these to describe a style he might embody.
Article: Jean Cocteau.(Paris)(restrospective at Centre Georges Pompidou)
"Though often dismissed as an erratic flibbertigibbet, Jean Cocteau was one of the twentieth century's great agents provocateurs..."
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-108691774.html
"Les Enfants Terribles brought two very different film-makers together for the first time - the mercurial, multi-talented Jean Cocteau and the single-minded, self-sufficient Jean-Pierre Melville."
http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_113.html
Jean Cocteau himself seems to attract epithets such as mercurial, volatile and erratic, and I have a feeling you could use any of these to describe a style he might embody.
Article: Jean Cocteau.(Paris)(restrospective at Centre Georges Pompidou)
"Though often dismissed as an erratic flibbertigibbet, Jean Cocteau was one of the twentieth century's great agents provocateurs..."
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-108691774.html
"Les Enfants Terribles brought two very different film-makers together for the first time - the mercurial, multi-talented Jean Cocteau and the single-minded, self-sufficient Jean-Pierre Melville."
http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_113.html
Note from asker:
| thanks Gilla! I hadn't thought of going down this route, even though it does say he had his detractors as well as his admirers! I somehow imagined that this would be more positive, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case! |
+1
6 mins
Martin Cassell
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
Works in field
United Kingdom
25 years as a specialist communicator
Native in: English (Variant: UK)
Works in: French to English
Related KudoZ points
:
10
French term (edited):
style virevoltant
heady eclecticism
or perhaps "exuberant"?
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Note added at 17 mins (2011-02-14 17:41:14 GMT)
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This is from a passage about the architect Piranesi, but the parallels with Cocteau seem strong: http://is.gd/UITzQj
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Note added at 21 mins (2011-02-14 17:44:59 GMT)
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Carol, I'm just running on from the figurative meaning -- a style that twists and turns restlessly. Quite like "mercurial" too: comes at the same thing from a different angle.
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Note added at 24 mins (2011-02-14 17:47:26 GMT)
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... though perhaps "mercurial", etc. would be harder to apply to the style of a whole period, as in your source sentence?
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 17 mins (2011-02-14 17:41:14 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
This is from a passage about the architect Piranesi, but the parallels with Cocteau seem strong: http://is.gd/UITzQj
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 mins (2011-02-14 17:44:59 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Carol, I'm just running on from the figurative meaning -- a style that twists and turns restlessly. Quite like "mercurial" too: comes at the same thing from a different angle.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 24 mins (2011-02-14 17:47:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
... though perhaps "mercurial", etc. would be harder to apply to the style of a whole period, as in your source sentence?
Note from asker:
| thanks Martin! I like it and it works beautifully, but is this just a wild guess, like mine? Ie, do you think is this actually the meaning? |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
ACOZ (X)
4 hrs
|
|
merci
|
+1
1 hr
twists and turns of style (of those years)
I think this works.
'Ah the twists and turns of style, when seeing a man in riding boots and a flared duster leaves you thinking "why's he dressed like a girl?"'
twitter.com/blokemenswear/status/10440062544
"By now, I'm quite used to being pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns of style that Turner often makes, and Revox is thankfully no exception: this ..."
www.documentaryevidence.co.uk/simonfisherturner6.htm -
"Nothing in fashion remains constant because of the fact that it is simply an on-going journey through twists and turns of style, driven by ..."
ezinearticles.com/?Coping-With-Fashion-Evolution&id...
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Note added at 4 hrs (2011-02-14 21:37:04 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Twists I added, turns I didn't:
"virevolte [viʀvɔlt] n. f.
ÉTYM. 1549; altér., d'après volte, de virevoust, altér. de vire vou(s)te (de virer, et vouter « tourner », lat. pop. *volvitare), sous l'infl. de l'ital. giravolta « tour en rond ».
v
1 Vx. (Manège). Demi-tour rapide, en décrivant un cercle, que fait le cheval (on dit plutôt demi-volte).
2 Cour. Mouvement de ce qui fait un demi-tour. | Les virevoltes d'une danseuse. | Virevoltes de lanières (d'un fouet). → Bête, cit. 12.
1 Il les interrompt, de temps en temps, nous faisant face par une virevolte du tabouret du piano (…)
Ed. et J. de Goncourt, Journal, 4 févr. 1894, t. IX, p. 146.
3 (xxe). Fig. Changement complet. è Volte-face. | Caprices (cit. 14) et virevoltes de la mode. — Changement d'avis, d'opinion. è Revirement.
2 Ma virevolte fut subite; certainement il y entrait du dépit; mais le dépit fut de courte durée (…)
Gide, Si le grain ne meurt, I, ix."
Le Grand Robert
'Ah the twists and turns of style, when seeing a man in riding boots and a flared duster leaves you thinking "why's he dressed like a girl?"'
twitter.com/blokemenswear/status/10440062544
"By now, I'm quite used to being pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns of style that Turner often makes, and Revox is thankfully no exception: this ..."
www.documentaryevidence.co.uk/simonfisherturner6.htm -
"Nothing in fashion remains constant because of the fact that it is simply an on-going journey through twists and turns of style, driven by ..."
ezinearticles.com/?Coping-With-Fashion-Evolution&id...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 hrs (2011-02-14 21:37:04 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Twists I added, turns I didn't:
"virevolte [viʀvɔlt] n. f.
ÉTYM. 1549; altér., d'après volte, de virevoust, altér. de vire vou(s)te (de virer, et vouter « tourner », lat. pop. *volvitare), sous l'infl. de l'ital. giravolta « tour en rond ».
v
1 Vx. (Manège). Demi-tour rapide, en décrivant un cercle, que fait le cheval (on dit plutôt demi-volte).
2 Cour. Mouvement de ce qui fait un demi-tour. | Les virevoltes d'une danseuse. | Virevoltes de lanières (d'un fouet). → Bête, cit. 12.
1 Il les interrompt, de temps en temps, nous faisant face par une virevolte du tabouret du piano (…)
Ed. et J. de Goncourt, Journal, 4 févr. 1894, t. IX, p. 146.
3 (xxe). Fig. Changement complet. è Volte-face. | Caprices (cit. 14) et virevoltes de la mode. — Changement d'avis, d'opinion. è Revirement.
2 Ma virevolte fut subite; certainement il y entrait du dépit; mais le dépit fut de courte durée (…)
Gide, Si le grain ne meurt, I, ix."
Le Grand Robert
Note from asker:
| thanks Barbara! I see where you're coming from! |
Discussion