SNP’s word of the day: Désamour
Word: Désamour
Meaning: Unlove, although that’s not an English word; maybe disenchantment, then.
Usage: “S’il n’est pas sûr, malgré le dicton, que l’esprit vienne aux filles avec l’amour, il semble s’aiguiser dans le désamour.” — Hervé Bazin in Madame Ex.
You should know it because: It’s fall, it’s cold and unsettling, and don’t you feel it? When I read the word in a New York Times piece on French voters and their uninspiring politicians, it made enormous sense. The Occupy Wall Street (and Bay Street, and Buffalo, and Tokyo, and, and, and) protests have been a display not only of disenfranchisement but something vaguer and more gripping—disillusionment. Remember when Michael Moore made Capitalism: A Love Story? Might be time for an even less positive—if that’s possible—sequel.
Other things we’re falling out of love with include: Facebook, Louboutins, and even with the institution of love itself, marriage. In films like Blue Valentine and Take This Waltz, both of which star a very désamour-y Michelle Williams, and in cover stories like the Atlantic‘s “All The Single Ladies,” it would seem we (women, I mean) are possessed by a désamour verging on pandemic. Anyway, Happy Monday!