Timeline for The meaning of "All that’s French for a liver pill."
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 5, 2021 at 8:35 | comment | added | Jivan | @Zachiel now you say this, I actually believe you’re right. Makes more sense like this. | |
| Apr 4, 2021 at 23:46 | comment | added | Zachiel | I would say that "all that" refers to just "get your stomach straight", because I can't see how the earlier sentences are anything but a preamble. | |
| Apr 4, 2021 at 23:43 | comment | added | Zachiel | @Jivan I think you're not seeing that "all that is French" can be parsed in two different ways, the one you already see ([all] that is French) and the one that was most probably meant ([all that] is French for...). | |
| Apr 4, 2021 at 23:09 | comment | added | terdon | @Jivan no, that wouldn't work at all. "and all that French for..." would mean (nonsensically) "all that French (language) was used for..." it doesn't make sense. It is only with the is that it does make sense and can be parsed just as this answer explains. Consider the equivalent "Bonjour is French for good morning", you need the is there. | |
| Apr 4, 2021 at 16:18 | comment | added | Austin Hemmelgarn | @Brad French being a commonly studied language does not mean that a majority of the population would understand it, even if school was mandatory. Even in modern times it’s very common for someone who learns a second language to not retain almost any of it unless they actively use it, and beyond school there would have been little use for any second languages except maybe Liturgical Latin for most people other than diplomats or merchants in late 19th century England. | |
| Apr 4, 2021 at 14:56 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | @Brad - French is a 'language that isn't understood' by a big majority of British people today, let alone 120 years ago. | |
| Apr 4, 2021 at 4:51 | comment | added | Brad | And "French" is used jokingly as "language that isn't understood" Surely this must be a false statement In 19th Century Britain Middle class boys went to Grammar schools and Grammar schools originally taught Latin. Later the range of subjects increased to modern standards. However French Latin and Greek were fairly commonly studied languages in the 19th Century. By early to mid to late 19th Century Education for middle class girls had become common place and an increasing number of poor children attended church schools, by the 1870's all children were required by law to attend school. | |
| Apr 4, 2021 at 3:43 | comment | added | Jivan | This answer would work if the text was “... and all that French for...” — but it’s not. It reads “and all that is French”. It clearly means “and everything that is French for a liver pill”. Not “and all the verbiage above for a lover pill”. | |
| Apr 4, 2021 at 3:20 | comment | added | Brad | The whole monologue is "patter": fast talk to get someone to buy a product. This is a false statement if you read the story. Heatherlegh, the Doctor, kept, in addition to his regular practice, a hospital on his private account Therefore if he was doing pro bono work he is hardly a Charlatan. The doctor has also just diagnosed indigestion "when I’ve cured you, young man, let this be a lesson to you to steer clear of women and indigestible food till the day of your death.” | |
| Apr 3, 2021 at 16:16 | history | edited | James K | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 319 characters in body
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| Apr 3, 2021 at 8:15 | comment | added | JavaLatte | References to Greek are much older than the teaching of Greek in elite English schools, which enjoyed a rise in status during the Enlightenment (18th Century) and peaked toward the end of the 19th Century. In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1599), Casca says of Cicero's speeches "it was Greek to me". | |
| Apr 3, 2021 at 8:07 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | I couldn't figure out the meaning at all when I first read it. I was thinking that it was a pun on foie gras (french goose liver) as take a pill in place of eating everything that is French but it didn"t make any sense. Thank you for explaining it so well! | |
| Apr 3, 2021 at 7:51 | history | answered | James K | CC BY-SA 4.0 |