Foumart:
meaning "foul" and pronounced with the "r" being silent (fu-met) **polecat **skunk
Why I Chose This Word:
As I scrolled down the list of unusual words beginning with the letter, "F," this one just caught my eye. (Glad it didn't catch my nose, though...)
Besides the fact that I had never heard of it before, the definition made me giggle a bit. It was just a fancy word for an "old polecat!" And as Wikipedia (below) will testify, and because I am a Southerner, we even get a whole lot more "real" and just call it a damn skunk!
The next jump into my thinking process went straight to Pepe Le Pew...I still can hear his overstated French accent from childhood cartoons. That guy was really a pervert, but we (my age group/Boomers) never thought of him as such. I mean, he was truly the Jeffrey Epstein/Harvey Weinstein prototype. Could it have been that they watched too many episodes???
My Poem: (A Parody of Walt Whitman's poem, O Captain! My Captain!)
O Pepe! not my Pepe! Your inappropriate crap is done,
The ship has sunk and didn't float , the lawsuits had been won,
The prison neared, the gavel pounded, the victims briefly exulting,
While follow eyes the conviction, the appeals grim and victims un-fairing;
But O, one heart-attack! attack! attack!
O the bleeding drops of cancer spread,
Where on the other slab, one Creep-tain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
References:
About the Creator
Shirley Belk
Mother, Nana, Sister, Cousin, & Aunt who recently retired. RN (Nursing Instructor) who loves to write stories to heal herself and reflect on all the silver linings she has been blessed with :)
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Comments (9)
Enjoyed the article and as one who grew up watching Pepe not my favorite looney tune but I’m glad we had a sense of humor back then and could laugh at all parts of our society even the ugly ones
A new word on me! Pepe would prefer foumart to skunk. It's got to be French in origin surely? We had a skunk make its home under our bay window in Calgary and I will never forget the stink. Never. Ugh.
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A Whimsical Wordplay and a Satirical Ode Your exploration of the word "foumart" is both humorous and insightful. The contrast between the formal definition and the more colloquial terms is quite amusing. Your playful take on Pepe Le Pew, drawing parallels to real-world figures, is both clever and thought-provoking. The parody of Walt Whitman's poem is a brilliant touch, adding a layer of irony and satire to your commentary on the character. Your ability to blend humor and social commentary is truly impressive.
A fascinating word & read… my dad regularly talked about “stinking like a polecat”!😵💫 I never knew what one was🤣.
Well-wrought! The running gag was that somehow the cat always got striped with paint and Pepe mistook her for a skunk. The classic case of mistaken identity! I wouldn't be too hard on the creators of that gag, though. If you think about it, given that he was a skunk, and skunks are generally disapproved of and avoided on account of their stink, there may have been a tongue-in-cheek commentary by the animators about what was going on in the executives' suite!
Beautiful enjoyable poem
Great poem! And I used to love Pepe, but yes, thinking back on those cartoons now and how he acted... not cool. haha!
Glad it didn't catch my nose 🤣🤣🤣🤣😅😅 Loved your poem and thank you for teaching me a new word hehehehe