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04/28/2006 Archived Entry: "French Heckling"

What's a good French translation for the verb "to heckle"? Céline of Naked Translations wonders. "My trusted Robert & Collins gives chahut (uproar), chahuter (to create an uproar) et perturbateur (why not chahuteur?) (troublemaker) as respective translations. These choices are completely inaccurate, due to the fact that heckling is an activity steeped in the history of this country [Great Britain], and is rife in British political debate, and as such has a poor equivalent in French when used in this particular context. That's why we all need to be kind with dictionaries and their writers; some terms are so charged with meaning that one can't but betray them."

I didn't know that the original hecklers were textile workers who pounded on flax fibers with a hatchet!