Carrefour - #516 - a podcast by Word of the Day

Today's word of the day is carrefour, C-A-R-R-E-F-O-U-R. Carrefour is a noun that refers to a crossroads or a plaza.

The key to grasping carrefour's meaning and proper use is in the word 'four.' But it's not what you think. The Latin word for four is quattuor. (KWAT to wahr), which has, over the years evolved into the C-A-R-R-E of carrefour.

An easy way to remember this is to recall that a quarter of something is one fourth. Think a quarter as a fourth of a dollar or an American football game as having four quarters. 

The second half of carrefour, F-O-U-R, strangely enough, has nothing to do with the number four. Is is derived from furkus (FOOR koos) the Latin word for fork. So a carrefour is a crossroads, or a meeting of four roads.

That carrfour across town can be pretty dangerous. Having cars racing toward each other from four different directions is just courting an accident.

Once again carrefour is spelled C-A-R-R-E-F-O-U-R. 

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