What is the French job 'Rectifieur (ouvrier)'?
I place French exchange students in homes for 3 weeks in July and as part of the student application, the parents' occupations are listed...in French. Normally my French is sufficient to translate these entries, but today I received a student whose father is listed as 'rectifieur (ouvrier)'. I know 'rectifier' means to correct, but can't put it together with a job unless it's a corrections officer (as in a prison)? I tried to look it up online but couldn't find an answer so was hoping someone here might know.
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I believe that is a repairman, or a handyman.
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I'm not certain exactly, but it's a technical job in a factory that makes things from metal or plastic, I believe, I think sort of like a machinist.
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oh, you don't hve a full understanding of what the word rectify means, that's only one definition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier |
Well, when we lived in Germany my German landlady and I tended to speak in French because my German was, and remains, rudimentary at best, and when a repair was need, I'm pretty sure that's the term she used.
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Here are several job descriptions for rectifieurs : https://candidat.pole-emploi.fr/cand...______________
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Hmm, looks like Christina is right. Either I'm misremembering, or my landlady was summoning machinists instead of repairmen, lol!
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A <i>rectifieur</i> is a machine tool operator who refines parts made until they are perfect and pass all quality control tests.
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In my version of English, that would be a finisher.
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What does one call a machine tool operator who makes imperfect parts?
Unemployed, for one. "opérateur de la machine-outil" would seem to be what the above thinks it means. I suspect that the correct definition of "rectifeur" has not yet been posted here. |
Handyman is homme à toutes mains.
Had never seen or heard the word rectifeur or -fier, interesting. |
Kerouac gives a correct definition.
Maybe P too, but I didn't bother to follow the link. homme à toutes main doesn't exist, you would translate it into homme à tout faire, which is NOT a rectifieur. However rectifieur is probably a nice word, with little real meaning. I would use rectificateur, personally. |
Sorry, whathello, I have a business card from the homme à toutes mains in my village.
Before I posted here, I checked it in the dictionary because I always get toutes and tous mixed up. If you don't believe me, look it up. |
Okay, the à should not be there. So, hommes toutes mains
There's a variation, homme à tout faire |
I suspect that what you call a 'variation' is the term used 99% of the time. But it's not really important because the term used by your handyman conveys a meaning one step up from 'homme à tout faire' because it conveys dexterity. This would indicate that he is hoping for better jobs than hauling trash to the dump.
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Thanks, K. My French is only passable but I like to continue learning.
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And thanks for all the comments! I don't feel so bad for not being to figure it out on my own!
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Well, one of the problems is giving fancy names to basic jobs to enhance the self esteem of the employees.
For example, we no longer have cleaning people in France but "<i>techniciens de surface</i>" instead. |
Very true; for some time we've had sanitary engineers instead of garbage collectors.
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Oh, we don't have those in Paris. We have urban cleanliness agents. :-) (agent de propreté urbaine)
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