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Examples
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Yet, for all that Djokovic's rise is seen as irresistible, for all the clamour for the sans-culottes to unseat the establishment, it is difficult to imagine Nadal losing for the fifth time this summer and the third consecutive time on clay in surrender of his title.
Rafael Nadal remains relaxed despite challenge of Novak Djokovic 2011
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We sans-culottes especially look forward to seeing his staff members that are worthy of our "awe" in action.
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But these are not 18th-century sans-culottes, run out of bread.
London Is Burning 2011
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L'Organisation des Nations unies a enfin décidé de soutenir le peuple libyen contre le dictateur Moammar Qaddafi, mettant terme à une période d'indécision durant laquelle l'armée des mercenaires de Qaddafi a pu employer des armes modernes contre les sans-culottes des révoltés.
Bishop Pierre Whalon: 'Just War' And The Intervention In Libya Bishop Pierre Whalon 2011
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He explained that the despotism fought by the sans-culottes in 1789 remained undefeated eighty years after the fall of the Bastille:
After the Bastille 2008
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Directed by Michel Grandage, who is making his NT debut, the wordy play's four hours is here slimmed to just under two, discarding the crowd scenes in which the sans-culottes buzz like a Greek chorus in a beehive, their swarms giving the play epic dimensions.
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He explained that the despotism fought by the sans-culottes in 1789 remained undefeated eighty years after the fall of the Bastille:
After the Bastille 2008
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She resists, like (sometimes literally) a tiny little sans-culottes, or a tiny little Robespierre, or some explosive revolutionary hybrid of the two.
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I had written that George Osborne looked like ‘a powdered French aristocrat in 1790 staring affrighted from the window of his carriage as the sans-culottes start to try to turn it over’.
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L'Ami du Peuple ( "The Friend of the People") served as an influential shaper of opinion among the sans-culottes.
Names 2007
Prolagus commented on the word sans-culottes
No wonder nobody wants you, you shameless word.
October 9, 2008
mollusque commented on the word sans-culottes
Sanscullotize on the other hand...
October 9, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word sans-culottes
just for Wordieternity... See also conversation on sans-eulotte.
October 9, 2008
frindley commented on the word sans-culottes
Oh, I think it's a wonderful word!
October 9, 2008
reesetee commented on the word sans-culottes
It's been depantsed!
October 9, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word sans-culottes
(Reposting from the erroneously-spelled sans-eulotte)
"SANS-culotte, a man without breeches." It sounds funny, but it's probably an official military term because of how infrequently soldiers were supplied with clothing. They literally wore their clothes to rags, and sometimes had to walk around (and of course work) wearing only their shirts, which had long tails (down to about the knees) and were considered underwear. A man sans-culottes (spelled without a final S in the original), in the parlance of the time, was "naked."
(citation for definition is in list description)
October 9, 2008
rolig commented on the word sans-culottes
According to the Oxford American Dictionary, a sans-culotte (as they give the headword) was "a lower-class Parisian republican in the French Revolution", and came to mean "an extreme republican or revolutionary" (understanding "republican" as one who supports a republic as opposed to a monarchical form of government). And this word, in its political sense, yielded the word sans-culottism. My guess is that these were probably derogatory terms when applied to French revolutionaries.
Also, according to the Wikipedia article, these soldiers did not wear the more fashionable culottes (knee-breeches) but full-length trousers (Wikipedia has a couple of pictures from the era). They weren't naked from the waist down.
October 9, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word sans-culottes
I think you're correct, rolig, and that's probably the more common usage. Yet here it is in a military dictionary of 1816! (Along with quite a few other French terms, of course.)
October 9, 2008
rolig commented on the word sans-culottes
See my edited comment, now with the Wikipedia link. One question I still have is about the final "s". Do the French use "sans-culotte" as a singular when referring to one of these soldiers (un sans-culotte)? Or do they say "un sans-culottes"? And I find I have another question: is culottes related to the French word for "arse": le cul?
October 9, 2008
rolig commented on the word sans-culottes
And here's this interesting comment from the Wikipedia article: "Soldiers of the Imperial Grande Armée incorporated the term sans-culotte into their slang, but rather than having a political definition, the new usage was used to mean 'the Scots', doubtless referring to the Scottish custom of wearing kilts (without underwear) rather than any sort of trousers or breeches."
October 9, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word sans-culottes
Wow. That is interesting. Kilted men are certainly without breeches...
October 10, 2008
gangerh commented on the word sans-culottes
I had a skimmerboard called 'Sansculotte'.
October 11, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word sans-culottes
Usage on soutane.
March 14, 2009