Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
faillirent entraîner un parquet sous leur poids
English translation:
nearly caused one of the parquet floors to cave in under their weight
Added to glossary by
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Aug 10, 2021 02:44
2 yrs ago
41 viewers *
French term
United States
Laudable Lady Linguist
Native in: English 
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, English to Spanish, and 3 more.
faillirent entraîner un parquet sous leur poids
French to English
Art/Literary
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
From An Art History Book
Contexte:
Au mois de janvier l’hôtel de Talleyrand, habitation du baron Édouard, était à peu près complètement déménagé, à l’exclusion de très lourdes statues. Celles-ci amenées en cours d’année au Jeu de Paume faillirent entraîner un parquet sous leur poids.
Merci Beaucoup,
Barbara
Au mois de janvier l’hôtel de Talleyrand, habitation du baron Édouard, était à peu près complètement déménagé, à l’exclusion de très lourdes statues. Celles-ci amenées en cours d’année au Jeu de Paume faillirent entraîner un parquet sous leur poids.
Merci Beaucoup,
Barbara
Proposed translations
(English)
Change log
Aug 11, 2021 14:03: Barbara Cochran, MFA Created KOG entry
Aug 11, 2021 14:04: Barbara Cochran, MFA changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/123909">Barbara Cochran, MFA's</a> old entry - "faillirent entraîner un parquet sous leur poids"" to ""nearly brought a parquet floor down under their weight""
Proposed translations
+1
1 day 6 hrs
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Native in English
Psychologist, Court-certified legal
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English
Related KudoZ points
:
119
Selected
nearly brought a parquet floor down under their weight
Just another suggestion.
"To bring down" for "entraîner" rather than the use of "to cause", which is fine, of course.
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Note added at 1 day 6 hrs (2021-08-11 08:48:53 GMT)
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Alternatively:
"Their sheer weight almost brought a parquet floor down in their wake".
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Note added at 1 day 6 hrs (2021-08-11 08:53:14 GMT)
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For the record, parquet floors do collapse. Not all are mounted in perfect conditions. Even when they have been mounted on a fairly solid structure, in old buildings, that is not always the case. Even where it is the case, structures can and do weaken over time and all have structural load limits.
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Note added at 1 day 6 hrs (2021-08-11 08:54:38 GMT)
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https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/chatellerault/son-salon-...
https://www.baticopro.com/guides/planchers-et-sol-remettre-e...
https://actu.fr/auvergne-rhone-alpes/lyon_69123/un-parquet-s...
"To bring down" for "entraîner" rather than the use of "to cause", which is fine, of course.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 6 hrs (2021-08-11 08:48:53 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Alternatively:
"Their sheer weight almost brought a parquet floor down in their wake".
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 6 hrs (2021-08-11 08:53:14 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
For the record, parquet floors do collapse. Not all are mounted in perfect conditions. Even when they have been mounted on a fairly solid structure, in old buildings, that is not always the case. Even where it is the case, structures can and do weaken over time and all have structural load limits.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 6 hrs (2021-08-11 08:54:38 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/chatellerault/son-salon-...
https://www.baticopro.com/guides/planchers-et-sol-remettre-e...
https://actu.fr/auvergne-rhone-alpes/lyon_69123/un-parquet-s...
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
ph-b (X)
: Very nice native touch. I like "bring down" - to be remembered.
7 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+5
2 hrs
nearly caused a wood/parquet floor to collapse
The weight of (the) statues brought to Jeu de Paume earlier in the year nearly caused a wood/parquet floor to collapse.
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Note added at 8 heures (2021-08-10 11:41:29 GMT)
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The source text uses parquet, which CNRTL defines as Assemblage de lames de bois avec rainure et languette, clouées sur des lambourdes (ou posées sur une dalle de béton) selon une disposition régulière, qui garnissent le sol d'une habitation. Synon. plancher.
Le Grand Robert... says Assemblage soigné et précis de petits éléments de bois (➙ 1. Frise, lame, 1. latte, cit. 2) qui garnissent le sol d'une pièce, d'une salle ; partie supérieure apparente d'un plancher*.
As for R&C: parquet /paʀkɛ/ nom masculin
a (= plancher)
(en général) wooden floor
(à chevrons etc) parquet (floor)
■ les lattes du parquet : the floorboards
We can only translate what the source text says, whether the description is accurate or not. In fact, I was afraid that suggesting "wood floor" would be departing from the text, but I did anyway since R&C mentions it.
For the same reason ("what the text says"), I'm not convinced by Barbara's note in the discussion zone about the weight affecting a section only of the floor. As for writeaway's "floorboards", that's les lattes du parquet, not parquet itself.
I'm happy of course for native speakers to suggest a better translation of parquet that would fit the definition.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
philgoddard
1 hr
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| agree |
Emmanuella
1 hr
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| agree |
Cyril Tollari
2 hrs
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| agree |
Saeed Najmi
4 hrs
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| neutral |
writeaway
: imo floorboards is a better solution than parquet. See https://www.traduguide.com/en/question.asp?q=70924&pg=1 /What help-me site is? It's a valid answer imo from a colleague on a different site.
5 hrs
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I didn't realise Traduguide was a reference. See added note.
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| neutral |
AllegroTrans
: I don't think you can assume it is parquet, or even wood; "floor" would be by far the safest option here// yes, I agree it is wood, my error
5 hrs
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See added note.
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| neutral |
Daryo
: in order to "collapse" the flooring (parquet) must be above a cavity - AFAIK parquet would be laid directly above a solid layer, so at worst it could be only "crushed" OR the whole floor could "cave in" (assuming there is a basement underneath)
18 hrs
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| agree |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
: Or almost brought down a parquet floor in its wake. And yes, they do collapse from time to time, whether or not on a solid base (age, rot, load limit attained). ;-)
1 day 4 hrs
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21 hrs
nearly started ripping out parquet blades under their weight
these heavy sculptures nearly started ripping out parquet blades under their weight as they were being moved around
faillirent entraîner un parquet sous leur poids
=
faillirent déloger les lames d'un parquet sous leur poids
if you start pushing something very heavy over a parquet flooring you risk "dragging out / entraîner" individual blocks of wood that make the parquet.
A parquet flooring can not "collapse" - it's laid on top of a solid base, it can only be crushed or dislodged (/ "dragged out") as a heavy weight is moved on top of it.
"un plancher" (the structure between say the ground level and the basement) could "collapse", but not "un parquet".
Here you can see this "parquet de la salle du Jeu de paume" at the bottom of this painting
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Couder_-...
faillirent entraîner un parquet sous leur poids
=
faillirent déloger les lames d'un parquet sous leur poids
if you start pushing something very heavy over a parquet flooring you risk "dragging out / entraîner" individual blocks of wood that make the parquet.
A parquet flooring can not "collapse" - it's laid on top of a solid base, it can only be crushed or dislodged (/ "dragged out") as a heavy weight is moved on top of it.
"un plancher" (the structure between say the ground level and the basement) could "collapse", but not "un parquet".
Here you can see this "parquet de la salle du Jeu de paume" at the bottom of this painting
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Couder_-...
Peer comment(s):
| neutral |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
: Not all parquet floors are mounted on a solid base. Some do collapse. "Entraîner" here means "to cause". https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/chatellerault/son-salon-... It happens.
8 hrs
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possible // "la salle du Jeu de paume" was initially built for the "aristos" to play some variant of tennis - you would expect a solid flooring for that, without even the slightest play as players keep jumping around.
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Discussion
museum's parquet floor, as if it's throughout : https://books.google.com/books?id=vv7UhpWhL0EC&pg=PA30&lpg=P...
I don't think it would be an entire floor.