Louche

The other night we went to a concert given by Michael Nyman; I am a very big fan, my husband less so. However, when he saw the music played live, or rather listened to it, he was really brought round and thoroughly enjoyed it. My husband has played in all sorts of bands over the years, groups, orchestras,pit bands, trios, jazz groups… everything you could imagine; one of the happiest times of his musical life was when he was involved in brass bands as a percussionist. So he listened with aprticualr interest to the brass instruments on stage and he remarked how wonderful the trumpet player was, saying he was very louche.

Louche is defined as dubious, shady, seedy,  but I think it could also be blousy and overblown, rakish, perhaps even relaxed and almost intoxicated in its disreputable way. Certainly he meant it in a complimentary way,a s giving the music a certain’feel’. Louche comes from the French to mean squint-eyed or cross-eyed… I wonder how it managed to get its very different English meaning?

Today in my French conversation class we played Kim’s game; a variety of random objects a re revealed on a tray and then covered and the idea is to remember them all. One of the items was a ladle, and the French for ladle is… louche!