Good clear explanation. There are a couple there for encore that I hadn’t picked up on (although I think context would decipher them even if you weren’t aware of that meaning of the word).
‘Yet’ is another possible meaning for encore, as in pas encore = ‘not yet’.
Typo alert for your final example. It should translate as ‘sad’, not ‘said’.
Rosemary Kneipp
November 29th, 2015 at 10:01 pm
Thanks, Susan, I’ll correct the typo. And yes, pas encore is “not yet”.
Lesley
November 27th, 2015 at 10:46 am
Is it bis that becomes bison for a main route that, say, goes to Spain, as seen on road signs ?
Rosemary Kneipp
November 29th, 2015 at 10:00 pm
I checked it out, Lesley. Bison Futé was the result of an advertising campaign orchestrated by Daniel Robert in 1976 as part of a campaign to reduce traffic jams during major “holiday” weekends but I can’t find any indication of why it’s called Bison Futé. I think that your aupposition that “bis” and “bison” are connected could easily be correct though.
[…] House numbers are another common usage of bis: […]
Dan Ross
April 12th, 2017 at 10:03 pm
I don’t know the specifics regarding ownership vs. rental vs. postal delivery, but in the U.S. (at least the Midwest) there occur several varieties of address splitting. Sometimes the address includes the suffix “UPPER” or “LOWER” or “FRONT/REAR”; letters A and up; and my favorite, “1/2” (half). I always thought of “bis” as being sort of like the “1/2”. (E.g., 123-1/2 North Main Street would probably be an upstairs apartment.) We do have some situations where there are houses in the middle of the block–I like that “battle-axe” term!
It’s not uncommon to have houses that were built as separate apartments to have multiple street numbers for the different apartments. This is sort of like a duplex house, except vertically arranged.
Apartments that are rented sometimes become condominiums and separately owned spaces.
I like the possible connection between bis and bison futé! I’ve always wondered what that meant too.
Rosemary Kneipp
April 13th, 2017 at 9:36 am
Thank you for your comments, Dan, which are very interesting. I didn’t know about 1/2.
Bison futé was invented by advertiser, Daniel Robert. I assume that it is a play on words because the alternative route to the motorway is called “itinéraire bis). http://vouloirtoujourstoutsavoir.blogspot.fr/2010/05/lorigine-de-bison-fute.html. If I find time, I’ll do a post on it!
Mike Alderman
May 5th, 2017 at 3:45 am
There was a French tank designated the Char B1 bis (improved version of the B1) at the beginning of WW2. There was a further improved version planned to be designated the B1 ter but only a few prototypes were produced before the fall of France in June 1940.
Rosemary Kneipp
May 7th, 2017 at 10:10 pm
That you go! Another use of bis.
Sam
October 9th, 2019 at 7:32 am
bis and ter are also used in English for naming of telecommunications standards. For example, back in the day that people used to use dial-up modems to connect to the Internet (and before that, BBSes), V.32bis was the standard that 14.4K modems implemented.
V.32bis is one of the standards issued by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is an agency of the UN which among other things develops standards for the telephone system, and which habitually uses “bis” for the second version of a standard (so the second version of standard X.1234 would be X.1234bis), and “ter” for the third. Obvious French influence, but they do it in English too. And, due to this, some English-speaking IT people, like myself, have picked this habit up, although possibly not everyone who uses or understands it is aware of its French origins. (Indeed, right now at work, I am working on my second attempt at developing a code fix for bug number 2668, and so naturally I label my second attempt 2668bis.)
Rosemary Kneipp
October 9th, 2019 at 11:45 am
Well thank you for that input!
Amy
December 9th, 2020 at 9:13 pm
This comment is super helpful, Sam, and also the rest of the post, Rosemary! I just stumbled upon this post after searching for a reason of why my French colleagues labeled a new index “ISU_BIS” next to it’s original “ISU”. Now I understand exactly what the column heading means from their view without this American having to ask dumb questions 😉
We have the letters a-d, if a house has been divided up into four apartments, generally.
Thanks, William, now I know what the custom is in Canada.
Good clear explanation. There are a couple there for encore that I hadn’t picked up on (although I think context would decipher them even if you weren’t aware of that meaning of the word).
‘Yet’ is another possible meaning for encore, as in pas encore = ‘not yet’.
Typo alert for your final example. It should translate as ‘sad’, not ‘said’.
Thanks, Susan, I’ll correct the typo. And yes, pas encore is “not yet”.
Is it bis that becomes bison for a main route that, say, goes to Spain, as seen on road signs ?
I checked it out, Lesley. Bison Futé was the result of an advertising campaign orchestrated by Daniel Robert in 1976 as part of a campaign to reduce traffic jams during major “holiday” weekends but I can’t find any indication of why it’s called Bison Futé. I think that your aupposition that “bis” and “bison” are connected could easily be correct though.
[…] House numbers are another common usage of bis: […]
I don’t know the specifics regarding ownership vs. rental vs. postal delivery, but in the U.S. (at least the Midwest) there occur several varieties of address splitting. Sometimes the address includes the suffix “UPPER” or “LOWER” or “FRONT/REAR”; letters A and up; and my favorite, “1/2” (half). I always thought of “bis” as being sort of like the “1/2”. (E.g., 123-1/2 North Main Street would probably be an upstairs apartment.) We do have some situations where there are houses in the middle of the block–I like that “battle-axe” term!
It’s not uncommon to have houses that were built as separate apartments to have multiple street numbers for the different apartments. This is sort of like a duplex house, except vertically arranged.
Apartments that are rented sometimes become condominiums and separately owned spaces.
I like the possible connection between bis and bison futé! I’ve always wondered what that meant too.
Thank you for your comments, Dan, which are very interesting. I didn’t know about 1/2.
Bison futé was invented by advertiser, Daniel Robert. I assume that it is a play on words because the alternative route to the motorway is called “itinéraire bis). http://vouloirtoujourstoutsavoir.blogspot.fr/2010/05/lorigine-de-bison-fute.html. If I find time, I’ll do a post on it!
There was a French tank designated the Char B1 bis (improved version of the B1) at the beginning of WW2. There was a further improved version planned to be designated the B1 ter but only a few prototypes were produced before the fall of France in June 1940.
That you go! Another use of bis.
bis and ter are also used in English for naming of telecommunications standards. For example, back in the day that people used to use dial-up modems to connect to the Internet (and before that, BBSes), V.32bis was the standard that 14.4K modems implemented.
V.32bis is one of the standards issued by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which is an agency of the UN which among other things develops standards for the telephone system, and which habitually uses “bis” for the second version of a standard (so the second version of standard X.1234 would be X.1234bis), and “ter” for the third. Obvious French influence, but they do it in English too. And, due to this, some English-speaking IT people, like myself, have picked this habit up, although possibly not everyone who uses or understands it is aware of its French origins. (Indeed, right now at work, I am working on my second attempt at developing a code fix for bug number 2668, and so naturally I label my second attempt 2668bis.)
Well thank you for that input!
This comment is super helpful, Sam, and also the rest of the post, Rosemary! I just stumbled upon this post after searching for a reason of why my French colleagues labeled a new index “ISU_BIS” next to it’s original “ISU”. Now I understand exactly what the column heading means from their view without this American having to ask dumb questions 😉