Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link and will create a new password via email.

What is the capital of Tunisia?

Please type your username.

Please type your E-Mail.

Please choose the appropriate section so the question can be searched easily.

Please choose suitable Keywords Ex: question, poll.

Type the description thoroughly and in details.

What is the capital of Tunisia?

Why does ‘pis-aller’ mean ‘dernier ressort’?

Pis ressort doesn’t make sense in French.

Anyway, the reason why aller doesn’t mean ressort is because pis doesn’t mean dernier.

Pis is the neutral form of pire, maybe the only word that survived the neutral case disappearance in French, and means "worse".

Aller is the substantivated form of the verb aller (to go), so pis-aller literally means something like "worse way, worse solution" but is mostly used nowadays to mean an unsatisfactory workaround, something doomed.

Let’s try to make it clear: "pis-aller" precisely means "to go with the worse choice". It’s basically a poor workaround, doing what we can with what we have.

"Dernier ressort" is literally "the last chance, the last way out". "Une solution de dernier ressort" is somewhat worse than a "pis-aller": it’s "the very last chance" vs "not the preferred or best choice".

 

Leave a comment

What is the capital of Tunisia?