UKC

Not a discussion topic, just a very obscure question - I wouldn't expect an answer in any kind of hurry, if at all. Has anyone heard of the word 'Papillon' being used as generic term for a kind of album or scrapbook of treasured photographs and cuttings etc.? Probably very old-fashioned, possibly from Victorian times ??

In reply to Gordon Stainforth: Not heard that Gordon, having read the book by Henri Charriere, I thought it was French for butterfly but I'm guessing you knew that already?

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:
No but its understandable... a collection of pretty things. Butterfly collections were common.

Scrapbook pappion gives tbis and many others:
http://local.creatingkeepsakes.com/Scrapbooking_Paper_and_Embellishments_Pa...

In reply to Steve Perry:


And as such an occasionally used metaphor for the ethereal, usually spirits but the link to memory in the context of a scrap book could be made I suppose.
jk

In reply to Steve Perry:


Yes, of course. Plus the name of a type of v small dog which have ears that look a bit like a butterfly ...

In reply to Offwidth:


Yes, that's about as far as I've got with it. But it seems to be term used in the mid-late 30s with a rather definite meaning.

In reply to jkarran:


I think it may be more to do with the covers of the book opening like the wings of a butterfly i.e. it turns into something beautiful ... something beautiful comes out of it when you open it ... ? ?

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Do you have access to the full Oxford English Dictionary ? or even the compact if it was a widespread use (my copy of the compact OED is at home so can't check for you)

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

In French the word Papillon can also mean a sticker, which makes sense in terms of a collection stuck into a book.

In reply to Doug:


No, I've just got the 2-volume Shorter Oxford, and the 3-volume Websters, and it's not in those. Just the butterfly and the dog.

In reply to john arran:


Ah! That's interesting ... I think you could be on to something there ...

In reply to john arran:

Must be a fairly obscure meaning as its not given in the on line edition of Larousse
http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/papillon/57777

or maybe Ariege patois

In reply to Gordon Stainforth and john Arran:

yes i just found this on wikipedia which gives on of the french translations as "leaflet"

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/papillon

In reply to john arran:

Thanks to you I've just done a Google on 'French papillon stick' and come up with 'papillon adhésif' which means 'self-stick note'. So I think papillons could refer to cuttings stuck in a book or album. I.e it could be plural. I only have a recording of this lady - who was multilingual and spoke French fluently - using the term, so I don't know how it was spelt. But I can't ask her, because she died in 2000.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

It's not in the full OED

In reply to Bob Hughes:


That's brilliant because it gives 'small printed sheet'. So I think it is more or less a French synonym for a 'cutting'.

In reply to Bob Hughes:


That's pretty much a clincher, then. Thanks.

I had a hunch that UKC might be faster than Googling for hours, and searching through multiple dictionaries ... and I was right

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:
Gordon, I'm intrigued by this. As doubtless you have, I've been through all the usual Littré etc references and in French at least etymology and entomology confound. All the uses are analogous, butterfly valves, small sail etc. I have also asked my wife, who is a historien du livre if it rings any bells, but she says not. Nor is the word used for scrapbook. On the other hand there is the usage, as in maps of a small map inserted in the corner of a bigger one, being a papillon, whilst contraventions/parking tickets are so-called. It is presumably this sort of usage that someone (or have you several examples?) may have affected/adopted as a term for an odds and ends album that may have caught on for a while. Sorry not to have been more help. Others, I see now, have come up with a similar use.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

More here froom the Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé:

http://stella.atilf.fr/Dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/visusel.exe?12;s=3225397080;r...

C. Spécialement
1. Feuillet imprimé contenant un avis au lecteur, inséré dans un ouvrage (pour expliquer, compléter ou modifier des détails); petite feuille volante jointe à un texte, à un document. À cette folle déclamation de J.-J. Rousseau: «La mort de Socrate est d'un homme, celle de Jésus-Christ est d'un dieu», il avait joint un papillon (bout de papier collé) fort raisonnable et fort peu éloquent et qui finissait par la maxime contraire (STENDHAL, H. Brulard, t.1, 1836, p.332).
2. Petite affiche de publicité, de propagande. Pluie de papillons. Aujourd'hui, le café de Flore a été abandonné par les chefs du mouvement, mais les camelots chargés de coller des papillons dans le quartier y viennent encore (FARGUE, Piéton Paris, 1939, p.159).
3. Fam. Avis de contravention posé sur le pare-brise d'une voiture. Les automobilistes parisiens ont fortement tendance à classer dans un tiroir les papillons qu'ils trouvent sur leur pare-brise. À peine 12 % de ces papillons sont retournés à la préfecture de police munis d'un timbre-amende (L'Express, 18 févr. 1974 ds GILB. 1980).

In reply to jcw:


... Like a 'sidebar'. Also the parking ticket has the same connotation as a 'sticker'. As you say, it could have been this lady's own special term, but I suspect it may have been quite widespread in the 30s among very well-educated literati. I think you're probably spot-on with your suggestion that it means an odds and ends album. She uses it to refer a collection of letters, but sometimes just extracts from letters, in what sounds like some kind of album or folder.

In reply to Bob Hughes:

Thanks, that's really helpful. I used Google translate on it, because my French ain't v good.

In reply to Doug:

I only had a vague memory of its use as something stuck or added later so I confirmed it on WordReference and it's quite clear on there: http://www.wordreference.com/fren/papillon

In reply to john arran:

Thanks. Great.

In reply to john arran:

Odd, I've only ever seen/heard it used as 'flyer' or 'pamphlet' (as well as butterfly, PV, etc) & our office copy of Larousse confirmed that, but your site clearly says sticker. I'll ask some of my French colleagues next coffee break.