Noun: ramdam
Gender: m
Hyphenation:
| Singular m | ramdam |
| Plural m | ramdams |
Sample Sentences
-
faire du ramdam (to make a fuss)
-
Vous faites pourtant un de ces ramdams, dit le flicard. ("But you are making an awful racket," said the cop.) [1959, Raymond Queneau, Zazie dans le métro:]
Nouns inflected like ramdam
trichogramme,
wintergreen,
urinoir,
contrespionnage,
aréomètre,
palefroi,
whiskey,
whippin,
tee-shirt,
hypocycloïde,
surrisque,
lanternon,
dissentiment,
phonogramme,
phonographe,
trioxygène,
fétichisme,
synode,
synthé,
modérantisme, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
Eventually probably from Arabic رَمَضان (ramaḍān). However, it does not seem entirely certain that it was borrowed by French colonial soldiers from Maghrebi Arabic, as some sources say. Instead compare Italian Rabadan (“carnival in Bellinzona, Switzerland”), which connects the two meanings or even Italian ambaradan. Further also German Remmidemmi (“fuss, racket”), though the latter is attested late and could be influenced by the French. In regards to the general semantic evolution from "holy month" to "noisy meeting" compare also with brouhaha, sabbat. See: Italian Nouns '
ambaradan', German Nouns '
Remmidemmi'.
Verbs referencing "ramdam"
German Nouns
Remmidemmi.
Translations