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sunshine jen: Word Management: Sang-froid and Tomkat
To: All Departments
From: Word Management Department
Re: New Words on File
We have been hard at work on two new words for the file. They are:
Sang-froid
This word was discovered on page 189 of the Wordsworth Classics paperback edition of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility:
'Mrs. Jennings was delighted with her gratitude, and only wondered that after hearing such a sentence, the Colonel should be able to leave of them, as he immediately did, with the utmost sang-froid. . . .'
After researching the word on dictionary.com, we found the word to mean 'coolness and composure in trying circumstances'. It was derived from the old French words 'sang' meaning blood and 'froid' meaning cold.
This would make sense in the context of the sentence as Colonel Brandon retains his composure not only in this scene but in the whole of the novel. Whatta guy! So much a better man than Willoughby.
Tomkat
Like other cubicle workers around the country, we in the word management department spend a lot of time reading celebrity gossip on the web.
As many of you know, Tomkat is the nickname given by gossip columnists and tabloids to Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.
One of our interns also recently learned that Tomkat is the name of a porno movie house on Santa Monica Boulevard in East West Hollywood.
Through further research, we have learned that the Tomkat movie house is less than a mile away from the corner where Hugh Grant met his prostitute friend many years ago.
It should also be noted that Hugh Grant was in a movie adaptation of Sense and Sensibility; however, he did not play Colonel Brandon or John Willoughby. He played the shy but amiable Edward Ferrars.
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