In yesterday's New York Times , an article about anti-US protests (or anti-Iraq war protests) in France was accompanied by a picture of protesters in Marseille(s), in front of a McDonald's restaurant. One of them was holding a sign that said [sic]:
BOYCOTEZ
LES
PRODUITS
AMERICAIN
This suggests that the French government's campaign against English loanwords is not making much headway. `Boycott' comes from the ostracism of an unpopular English land agent in Ireland, a Mr. Charles C. Boycott (d. 1897). Oh, well, at least it's not a loanword from AMERICAN English.
Posted by Sally Thomason at November 14, 2003 05:17 PM