A boy, having to give the etymology of the French word dimanche, and explain why "book" and "pound" are expressed by the same French word livre, perpetrated the following:
"[Dimanche ] is a compound word, formed from di (twice), and manche (to eat), because you take two meals on that day (Sunday)." [ [8] ]
"Livre stands for 'book' as well as for 'pound,' because the accounts of 'pounds' are kept in 'books.'"
[ It ] was the same boy who, being asked for the meaning of cordon bleu, answered "a teetotaler."
A young Briton, having to derive the French word tropique, wrote:
"This word comes from trop (too much), and ique (from Latin hic which means here), with the word heat understood, that is to say: Tropique, it is too hot here."
Another boy, with a great deal of imagination and power of deduction, having to give the derivation of the French word cheval, wrote the following essay: