bagatelle (bag-uh-TEL) noun
1. Something unimportant.
2. A kind of pinball game in which balls are struck with a cue to send
them to holes at the other end.
3. A short, light piece of verse of music
I had always heard the term to mean also a motley collection of anything
But I had never heard def 3 above. Does anyone know its approximate age, or is it a neologism
Thanks all
heh. I had never heard defs 1 and 2...
here's a bit of info on the musical version:
Beethoven wrote someI'm still looking for other stuff.
wow, this is cool:
matching diagramsI've never seen anything quite like that applied to music. cool.
I also didn't realize that
Für Elise was a bagatelle.
learn sumpin' new ever'day.
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Bagatelle
A trifle; a thing of no consideration. “Oh! nothing. A mere bagatelle.” In French, “Il dépense tout son argent en bagatelles” means, he squanders his money on trash. “Il ne s’amuse qu’à des bagatelles,” he finds no pleasure except in frivolities. Bagatelle! as an exclamation, means. Nonsense! as “Vous dîtes qu’il me fera un procès. Bagatelle!” (fiddlesticks!)
“He considered his wife a bagatelle, to be shut up at pleasure” [i.e. a toy to be put away at pleasure].—The Depraved Husband.
and here's OED2:
bagatelle
[a. F. bagatelle, ad. It. bagatella, a dim. form which Diez attaches to Parmesan bagata a little property, prob. from baga: see BAGGAGE. With bagatello, cf. -ADO suffix 2. Formerly quite naturalized in sense 1, now scarcely so; sense 2 is purely Eng. in origin and use.]
1. A trifle, a thing of no value or importance.
c1645 HOWELL Lett. II. xxi, Your trifles and bagatels are ill bestowed upon me. 1658 J. ROBINSON Eudoxa i. 4 Every particular thing..even unto the smallest bagatello's. 1659 GAUDEN Tears Ch. 102 (D.) To please themselves with toyes and bagatelloes. 1679 A. BEHN Feigned Court. II. i, Ah Baggatelles, Seignior, Baggatelles. a1733 NORTH Exam. II. v. {page}100 He makes a meer Bagatel of it. 1786 T. JEFFERSON Writ. 1859 I. 566 As to the satisfaction for slaves carried off, it is a bagatelle. 1872 BAKER Nile Trib. iv. 53 The bonâ fide tax is a bagatelle to the amounts squeezed from him by the..soldiery.
b. A piece of verse or music in a light style.
1827 Gent. Mag. XCVII. II. 618 The best amatory and pastoral bagatelles in our language. 1880 GROVE Dict. Mus., Bagatelle, a short piece of pianoforte music in a light style.
c. attrib. or as adj. Trifling, trumpery. Obs.
1637 BASTWICK Litany I. 17 All which they haue..ouerthrowne with their baggatelle invention.
2. A game played on a table having a semi-circular end at which are nine holes. The balls used are struck from the opposite end of the board with a cue. The name is sometimes applied to a modified form of billiards known also as semi-billiards.
1819 P.O. Lond. Direct. 343 Thurston, John..Billiard Table and Bagatelle Manufacturer. 1854 MAYHEW Lond. Labour III. 298 They have cards and bagatelle to keep them.
b. attrib. as bagatelle-ball, -board, -room.
1837 DICKENS Pickw. xiv, A bagatelle-board on the first floor. 1854 MAYHEW Lond. Labour II. 19 The numbered sockets in a bagatelle-board. 1863 H. KINGSLEY A. Elliot II. xvii. 235 Austin went on knocking the bagatelle-balls about.
©OED SECOND EDITION 1989
well, there you go.
Here, a bagetelle is also a dessert made with an assortment of fruits, cake pieces or cookies, and whipped cream.
It is usually done in a glass bowl with alternating layers of cake/cookie, cream and fruit.
It is called a bagatelle because the recipe varies depending on what you have in the fridge.
Oh, in english is called a 'trifle' --and its often very far from a trifling!
Yummmmm, you're certainly right there. Though wouldn't it be nice if we could eat it and the calorie-count was a trifle.
Quote:
bagatelle (bag-uh-TEL) noun
1. Something unimportant.
2. A kind of pinball game in which balls are struck with a cue to send
them to holes at the other end.
3. A short, light piece of verse of music
I had always heard the term to mean also a motley collection of anything
Actually, I never heard bagatelle used to mean a "motley collection"... Most frequently the musical definition, and then "something unimportant". And I had no idea about the pinball game.
1 boîte (300 ml) de lait
How can there be a box of milk?
Yeah, yeah--thanks, Myr. But there's still something inherently wrong with the idea of a box of milk. I will concede that milk can come in cartons, which are, I guess, waxed boxes (with funny tops!). I'll drink a carton of milk, but not a box of it.
Wine comes in boxes. At least the good stuff does. The cheap wine comes in paper bags.
Of late, I have been buying chicken stock and beef stock in boxes rather than in cans. Seems to be the hip new thing in packaging.
Jackie, in Québec, a can is called une boîte de conserve. A box for conserving.
Can is an anglophone word that the government has been trying to eradicate from the language.
If you think about it though, a box isn't always square. Hat boxes are round. There are little fold-able gift boxes that have the shape of a pillow. Odd shapes and domed lids.
From Ron's link:
Norskog said he had not made a decision yet about continued use of the box despite some success in the market. "The cost of producing one 1.5 liter package equals the cost of bottling a case of bottles," he said. 
Quote:
Of late, I have have been buying chicken stock and beef stock in boxes rather than in cans. Seems to be the hip new thing in packaging.
It takes one to know one, Father.
So what Father Steve is saying is, it's hip to be square.
Quote:
"The cost of producing one 1.5 liter package equals the cost of bottling a case of bottles," he said.
How does it work out when you add in trasportation costs? The boxes will stack more efficiently and there will be less overhead in weight.
You've a very good point Faldage. Glass bottles are very expensive to ship because of the weight. I know that for 1L foam bath, it nearly doubles your freight costs because the glass bottles weigh more than the plastic bottles and you cannot double-stack the pallets in the trucks.
One of my manufacturers makes soup stocks. The tetra pak stocks are much more expensive to produce than canned stocks but people like them because they are more convenient. They are made with a spout so a reasealable if the whole litre is not used.
Quote:
Of late, I have been buying chicken stock and beef stock in boxes rather than in cans. Seems to be the hip new thing in packaging.
WHAT? You don't prepare your own chicken and beef stock yourself? You don't spend several hours a day concentrating stock, putting in new meat, straining, cooking, etc.
Where can I get that stuff?
Getting back to the thread: tsu, thanks; 1827 on def 3 makes it not a neologism unless you're very old
Has nobody else heard is used as motley collection
Nope, never heard it used to mean a motley collection, only to mean a trivial thing, or a scrumptious dessert.
You don't prepare your own chicken and beef stock yourself?
Getting back to the thread, yes, I do prepare my own meat stocks, but only about four times a year and that is not nearly enough to keep the vicar's kitchen goin', hence the need to resort to store bought.