2021
L’amphore – noun, masculine
This word comes to me from my children’s love of Astérix, the French/Belgian series—a bande dessinée currently in 38 volumes, first published in 1959 by famed duo René Goscinny (writer) and Albert Uderzo (illustrator), with the most recent volume appearing in 2019, written by Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrated by Didier Conrad.
My bilingual teenage son’s use of this term correctly in French (his weaker of the two languages) in everyday speech took me by surprise and I was pleased to learn that Astérix and his band of merry Gauls had increased his bilingual vocabulary for the better.
Close to its cousin amphora in English, the French amphore is a vessel or container. In ancient times, the amphore was used to transport products of daily living such as wine, olive oil or beer. Often made of ceramic, such containers had a pointed bottom and a more narrow top for easy and efficient storage. Perhaps in Astérix’s time, they were used to store the legendary potion magique, or magic potion.
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