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17 frimaire de l’an II

English translation: 7 December, 1793, according to the Revolutionary Calendar.

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:17 frimaire de l’an II
English translation:7 December, 1793, according to the Revolutionary Calendar.
Entered by: Christopher Crockett

19:39 May 18, 2004
French to English translations [PRO]
History
French term or phrase: 17 frimaire de l’an II
Une explosion détruisit les bâtiments le *17 frimaire de l'an II*
blabli blablou
Djibouti
Local time: 21:42
7 December, 1793
Explanation:
According to the Revolutionary Calendar.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 mins (2004-05-18 19:51:24 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The diversity of answers is an indication of why it is that this new calendar never really caught on. Can you imagine how hard it would be to figure this out in the daze before the WWW?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 15 mins (2004-05-18 19:54:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Come to think about it, it\'s amazing that the Bourbons aren\'t still in power.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 18 hrs 16 mins (2004-05-19 13:55:25 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Mary Wilburn makes a good point, and the way to go in the translation depends upon what the context requires --perhaps both:

\"An explosion destroyed the buildings on \'17 frimaire de l’an II\', i.e., the seventeenth day of the month of frimaire in the second year of the French revolutionary calendar, which would be 7 December, 1793 in our own reactionary calendar.\" [I\'m stealing Mary\'s answer, obviously.]

Something like that. A bit wordy, but complete.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 18 hrs 1 min (2004-05-20 13:40:50 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Note to Julie, et al.

I, too, initially misread the site you mention, http://pchapelin.free.fr/calrep/calen2.htm --but, if you look closely, the line marked Frimaire/Novembre changes to De[cembre] 1 on the 11th day of that month.

I.e., 10 Frimaire corresponds to 30 November in the old calendar, 11 Frimaire to 1 December.

They didn\'t just rename the months (and the days, and the seasons), they totally reworked the whole damned calendar.

See?

It\'s easy.

And very, very \"rational\".
Selected response from:

Christopher Crockett
Local time: 15:42
Grading comment
thank you again, Christopher!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +87 December, 1793
Christopher Crockett
4 +3seventeenth day of the month of frimaire in the second year of the French revolutionary calendar
Mary Wilburn
5 +17 décembre 1793
Grzegorz Gryc
5 +1November 7, 1793
François Rossi
5 +1& december 1793
Hacene
4 +1December 17 ,1774
Maggie Stilson (X)
4 +1comment - not for points
Mario Marcolin
427 November 1793
Julie Roy


  

Answers


5 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
17 frimaire de l’an II
December 17 ,1774


Explanation:
French revolutionary calendar

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Note added at 6 mins (2004-05-18 19:46:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Excuse me, actually it\'s December 7, 1794. It\'s a confusing calendar!


    Reference: http://www.napoleonseries.com/reference/political/revcalenda...
Maggie Stilson (X)
Local time: 15:42
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Hacene: wrong year, see my link
3 mins
agree  Christopher Crockett: I've never seen it explained so clearly before as it is on that site. Still, that doesn't help all that much.
11 mins
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
17 frimaire de l’an II
7 décembre 1793


Explanation:
Calendrier révolutionnaire :-)
C'est tout simple :-)


Grzegorz Gryc
Local time: 21:42
Native speaker of: Polish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  François Rossi
2 mins
neutral  Julie Roy: Hummm..... December or November, that is the question. According to Maggie's link, you are right, but look at this link and tell me what you think: http://pchapelin.free.fr/calrep/calen2.htm I'm so confused!!!
5 hrs
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
17 frimaire de l’an II
November 7, 1793


Explanation:
French republican calendar (revolution).



--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 9 mins (2004-05-18 19:49:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Oops. Wrong calculation. 17 Frimaire is December 7 1793. Christopher is right.


François Rossi
Local time: 20:42
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in FrenchFrench

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Christopher Crockett: Easy to do.
8 mins
neutral  Julie Roy: According to this link: http://pchapelin.free.fr/calrep/calen2.htm you are right. But according to Maggie's link, Christopher is right. November or December?
5 hrs
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
17 frimaire de l’an II
& december 1793


Explanation:
During the French revolution, the revolutionaries adopted a different calendar.
starting 22-09-1792


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 mins (2004-05-18 19:47:23 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

sorry, should read: 7 december

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 19 mins (2004-05-18 19:58:46 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

should read:
7 December


    Reference: http://www.de-cujus.com/calendriers/calendrier3.html
Hacene
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:42
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: French
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Christopher Crockett: Mmmm.... still needs a "shift" key in there --*D*ecember, in English.
10 mins
  -> True, well spotted
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24 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
17 frimaire de l’an II
27 November 1793


Explanation:
Vous pouvez consulter le Tableau de concordance entre le Calendrier républicain et le Calendrier grégorien au lien suivant :

http://pchapelin.free.fr/calrep/calen2.htm




--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs 51 mins (2004-05-19 01:31:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The link is correct... but my reading of the calendar is wrong.
It should be \"7 Novembre 1793\".

François has it all figured out... :-)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs 2 mins (2004-05-19 01:41:24 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

...or maybe not.
I\'ll let you guys battle it out. I can\'t wait to know the answer to this one!

Julie Roy
Canada
Local time: 15:42
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Christopher Crockett: (See my note to you at the bottom of my answer. ) The problem is that "frimaire" didn't exactly correspond with either November or December, but overlapped them both.
17 hrs
  -> I am soooo grateful for our current calendar! :-)
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12 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
17 frimaire de l’an II
comment - not for points


Explanation:
More reasons why the project never caught on:
"Each month was divided up into 3 equal decades of 10 days each, and the day was divided up into 10 decimal hours.
Each hour contained 100 minutes and each minute 100 seconds. Each day in the 3 decades had its own name, as in days of the week, and the 10th day, Decadi, was a day of rest when shops and businesses had to close. It became a criminal offence for a shop to close on the old Sunday..."
http://www.hms.org.uk/nelsonsnavyrevcalend.htm

Mario Marcolin
Sweden
Local time: 21:42
Native speaker of: Native in SwedishSwedish, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Christopher Crockett: Sounds like a Perfectly Rational System, to me. Wonder why on earth it didn't take off.
5 hrs
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13 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
17 frimaire de l’an II
seventeenth day of the month of frimaire in the second year of the French revolutionary calendar


Explanation:
Translation does not require restatement of the date in terms of another calendar. Like the modern reader of the French, the reader in English can/will "google" or otherwise find "frimaire" and with it "l'an II." The restatement is a fun exercise, but not an indicated one.

Mary Wilburn
United States
Local time: 15:42
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Christopher Crockett: Yes, good point. Which way to go in the translation depends upon what the context requires --it may be both.
5 hrs
agree  sktrans
5 hrs
agree  Mario Marcolin: This + a footnote would always work :)
7 hrs
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6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +8
17 frimaire de l’an II
7 December, 1793


Explanation:
According to the Revolutionary Calendar.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 mins (2004-05-18 19:51:24 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The diversity of answers is an indication of why it is that this new calendar never really caught on. Can you imagine how hard it would be to figure this out in the daze before the WWW?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 15 mins (2004-05-18 19:54:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Come to think about it, it\'s amazing that the Bourbons aren\'t still in power.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 18 hrs 16 mins (2004-05-19 13:55:25 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Mary Wilburn makes a good point, and the way to go in the translation depends upon what the context requires --perhaps both:

\"An explosion destroyed the buildings on \'17 frimaire de l’an II\', i.e., the seventeenth day of the month of frimaire in the second year of the French revolutionary calendar, which would be 7 December, 1793 in our own reactionary calendar.\" [I\'m stealing Mary\'s answer, obviously.]

Something like that. A bit wordy, but complete.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 18 hrs 1 min (2004-05-20 13:40:50 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Note to Julie, et al.

I, too, initially misread the site you mention, http://pchapelin.free.fr/calrep/calen2.htm --but, if you look closely, the line marked Frimaire/Novembre changes to De[cembre] 1 on the 11th day of that month.

I.e., 10 Frimaire corresponds to 30 November in the old calendar, 11 Frimaire to 1 December.

They didn\'t just rename the months (and the days, and the seasons), they totally reworked the whole damned calendar.

See?

It\'s easy.

And very, very \"rational\".

Christopher Crockett
Local time: 15:42
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 100
Grading comment
thank you again, Christopher!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Hacene: absolutely
2 mins
  -> Thanks, Hacene.
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
2 mins
  -> Thanks, Vicky.
agree  François Rossi
3 mins
  -> Thanks, Rossi.
agree  Maggie Stilson (X): agree
5 mins
  -> Thanks, Maggie. You had me going there, for a minute.
agree  Aisha Maniar
30 mins
  -> Thanks, Aisha.
agree  Stephanie Mitchel: speaking of www, dec 7 was the attack on pear harbor in ww2... but i digress....
2 hrs
  -> Yes, you do. But thanks anyway, Stephanie.
agree  Mario Marcolin: The real problem was that this system had a 10 day week ( three weeks in a month instead of 4+)...cf also http://www.hms.org.uk/nelsonsnavyrevcalend.htm
12 hrs
  -> Yes, it looks like the Revolutionaries really wanted a break with the past (as Revolutionaries will do), no matter how crazy their scheme was. Ten day weeks go with the metric system, of course, and eliminate the "Sabbath". Nice link. Thanks, Mario.
agree  Julie Roy: Thank you for the excellent explanation!
1 day 18 hrs
  -> See, you *can* believe everything you read on the web --providing you read it correctly. Thanks, Julie.
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