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Chapter 1  Preamble

Forward to the English Translation

This English translation is a work in progress. It was started by me - Bob Anderson in order to give a little back to the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Community. I have neither special financial or linguistic skills but as a long time user of the software and muddling through without the aid of the manual I know how much this translation is needed.

Occasionally I have been unsure about the faithfulness of the English translation to the original French. Any uncertainties are marked at the beginning and end of the problem passage with pairs of question marks ??thus??.

This translation is a strict paragraph by paragraph translation, it is important to keep to this translation format in order to simplify the addition to the English translation of any changes made to the original French Manual. In some places you will also come across a short paragraph or footnote introduced by the phrase
Translators Note:
where an extra paragraph or footnote has had to be added to explain a problem with the translation, something specific to the English language interface or flag a section which needs revision in both the French and English manual versions. However in order to ensure the strict one to one correspondence between the French and English translations; it is essential that the French Manual remains the authoritative document and thus revisions to the English Manual will only be made AFTER the French revision is accepted.

How to assist in the production of an English manual

There are many ways you can help to complete this English translation. As yet only a handful of chapters have been translated. The figures are currently showing the French interface version and all the example account entries in the illustrations are also in French. Those chapters that have been translated could probably benefit from better phrasing in places.

For detailed guidance on how you can help please see the document HelpTranslate-en.md on the manualGithub site.

Acknowledgements and a dedication

Most of my translations were done with the aid of Google Translate using Translate Shell

The English translation of this manual is dedicated to the memory of my father John Anderson FCA1

The translation from the French Manual begins on the following page

The translation from the French Manual starts with a the next section heading Why call it Grisbi?. I have changed the section heading from the original Préambule . This section is a commentary by the original author on the etymology of the word Grisbi.

I should give a word of warning about my translation efforts on this first section about the origin of the word Grisbi. I have tried to retain the sense of the various French dictionary entries, although most of the words are translated to English the accuracy of the translation should not be relied upon for more than giving the reader an overall feel of the original French text. If you are very interested in the etymology then you had better read the original French version of this section of the manual.

Why call it Grisbi?

Several Grisbi users have asked me to insert in the manual a brief reminder of the meaning of this word, which, to my chagrin, fell back into disuse.

My first (brief) research did not bring me any results worth publishing, I had then dropped it until one day I had the opportunity to spend some time in a well-stocked library containing dictionaries of all kinds, there the harvest was abundant. It was so abundant that I hesitated a long time to know what I was going to keep and what I was going to eliminate …Finally I decided to keep everything, even if we go from a paragraph to four pages. I just made a compilation of the shortest items to the longest ones. Indeed I find it interesting to study the differences between the different dictionaries, but even more to note the similarities, at this point striking that one could title this chapter not The game of the seven errors but Who copied who? It’s up to you to find…And I also added a passage on the film because for those who still know what grisbi means is essentially due to the deserved reputation of this work.

Here are some sources on the etymology of the word grisbi:

Dictionary of French language — Hachette

[grizbi] n. m. Slang. Silver — Of grey (grey money, cd rouchi griset [1834], liard ), and suff. pop. -bi; 1895, spread in 1953.

Grand Larousse of the French language

[grizbi] n. m. (of grey [and], piece of six liards [1834, Esnault] — der. from grey, because of the color [cf. also grisette, coin — 17th century. —, and white and grey coin, 1784, Esnault] — with the suffix.slang. -bi; 1896, Delesalle). Slang. Money: Do not touch the grisbi (title of a novel by Albert Simonin [1953]).

Historical Dictionary of the French language — Robert

n.m. appeared in 1895 (grisbis) and spread from 1953 by the novel Do not touch the grisbi by A. Simonin, would be composed of gris grey money (1784: see le rouchi griset six-liard coin , 1834, and grisette coin , v. 1634 ) and the bi element of obscure origin: grisbi, silver in slang, could be a tautological compound of grey and bis.

Dictionary of French slang and its origins — Larousse

Very controversial origin: either of griset, coin , and a mysterious suffix -bi, or bread both grey and bis, or English slang crispy, silver; we propose to see a metonymic use of gripis 1628 [Cheneau], grispin, grisbis 1849 [Halbert], meunier , that is to say, one who has at his home wheat 1895 [Delsalle] but ??recirculated?? by Touch the grisbi , famous novel of A. Simonin, published in 1953.

VARIANTS — grijbi: 1902 [Esnault] — grèzbi: around 1926 [id.]

DERIVATIVES — grisbinette n.f. One hundred old franc coins: 1957 [Sandry-Carrère].

Treasures of the French language

Slang. Silver. Synon. pop. money, cake, pèze, cash. The grisbi I’m big enough to pick it myself! (…) Riton who had not even known how to behave like a man (…) as soon as he felt enough grisbi (Simonin, Touch not to the grisbi, 1953, p 231). Pronunciation: [grizbi]. Étymol. and Hist. 1896 grisbis slang. money (Delesalle, Dict, ?? of French slang??). Word composed of rad. of griset, in the sense of this six-liard piece (1834 ds Esn.), der. of grey, because of the color (cf. also ca 1634 grisette coin , The Norman Muse by D. Ferrand , Ed A. Heron, II, 91, 1784, Brest, white and grey coin in Esn., and a second part of obscure origin which represents maybe the suff. pop. -bi, to be close to nerbi very black (from Esn.). It is not impossible that grisbi (formerly grisbis) is a tautological compound of grey and bis. Bbg. Rigaud (A.). L’arg. litt. Life lang. 1972, pp. 114-117.

Grand Robert of the French language

[grizbi] n. m. — 1895: spread 1953 by Simonin’s novel Touch not to grisbi; the word was rare or archaic v. 1950: from grey grey money (see rouchi griset liard , 1834), and suff. pop. Slang Money. T’as du grisbi?

1 — This expression: Do not touch the grisbi becomes a variation of Do not mess with the nippes . This is the keyword that leads the chronicle of these knights of ill-gotten fortune ??which inspired?? Peter Cheyney’s cape and machine gun novels. P. Mac Orlan, in Albert Simonin, Do not touch the grisbi, Preface, p. 6.

2 — ??Do not break your head for politeness … First we have no time if you want me to find you Ali. It all depends on what he has of grisbi digging; if he is armed, one has a chance to find him in the flames, in the Carillon part. ?? Albert Simonin, do not touch the grisbi, p. 147.

Dictionary of Unconventional French — Hachette

n.m. (Grisby)

Silver (intrinsically).

??To the little boss of the team, a muffle with a torpedo cap, blue heaters and pumps varnished, the kid had just said she was frying only for the right motive, to relieve me of my hundred bags. He had replicated, the naughty jealousy: — The grisbi, I’m big enough to pick it up myself! They both said they were both, and they were equally ready for anything grisbi Loot. They and their little friends. Like Angelo-la-Tante and Josy-la-Peau-de-Vache; like Ali-le-Fumier and his garbage of espingos; like Riton, who had not even known how to be a man with his child, as soon as he had felt enough of grisbi; like Marco and his little Wanda, if honest, but not hesitating to be stepped over by the man grisbi! like the same Lulu, no doubt, waiting patiently for me to turn down with my grisbi!??

A. Simonin, Do not touch the grisbi, p. 233

HIST. — 1895, but probably little used: A. Bruant and L. Blédort, who occasionally accumulate synonyms (weigh, bone,, etc.), do not use grisbi, although Bunting records it in 1901 (grisbis). The deserved success of A. Simonin’s novel in 1953 ??made first use of?? the word, which does not seem really integrated in the series of alternative words for money, like wheat, sorrel, flouze or fric.

Rouchi griset, a six-liard piece (1834), so called because of its color. But the only explanation currently available given by Esnault, is not satisfactory; on the one hand, the element bi remains unexplained, if not by a suffix unknown; on the other hand, Bunting writes grisbis, and it is possible (if not probable) that the central s pronounced only since 1953; which would lead to an explanation: gris-bis, in the series of alternative words for bread, wheat, carmine, biscuit, pancake, etc.

Finally, if the metonymy of colour is actually used to denominate money, it is always a precise category of money: types . Thus jaunet, white, white, copper, are not interchangeable nor usable for money abstract.

We will also recall the meaning of grey: expensive (V. grisol) and the possibility of the pseudo-suffix augmentative bi, very , even rare. We would then have: grey-bi, very expensive ? But the hypothesis is speculative.

Bibliography

Do not touch the Grisbi! by Albert Simonin

Filmography

Do not touch the grisbi!

Italian, French film (1953). Police officer. Duration: 1h 34 min

Original title: Grisbi

Distribution:

Director: Jacques Becker

Synopsis

Max-le-lieur and Riton have just pulled off the greatest heist of their lives: stealing 50 million francs worth of gold bars at Orly. With this grisbi , both gangsters expect to enjoy a peaceful retirement. But Riton can not resist telling his mistress Josy about money. The ??entraîneuse?? passes the valuable information to Angelo, a drug dealer with whom she is cheating on Riton with. Angelo kidnaps the old mobster and demands grisbi from Max as ransom …

Trivia

A well-oiled tandem:

Jean Gabin and René Dary are considered two sacred figures of cinema before the war.

Becker father and son:

Jacques’ son Becker, Jean, makes his film debut here as an assistant director. He is only fifteen years old!

Albert Simonin:

Writer and screenplay by Albert Simonin, who here adapts his own novel, will make four more movies with Gabin, all dialogues by Audiard: Le cave se rebiffe (1961) and The gentleman of Epsom (1962) by Gilles Grangier, Mélodie en sous-sol (1963) by Henri Verneuil and The Pasha (1967) by Georges Lautner. After adapting his Les Tontons flingueurs for Georges Lautner (1963), he became his screenwriter for Les Barbouzes (1964).

DVD Version


1
FCA = Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. John Anderson (AJ) studied accountancy while serving in the Royal Air-force as a Radar Technician during the second World War. On being demobbed at the end of the war he then joined the accountancy firm started by my Grandfather: H J Anderson and Co. Any accountancy skills I may have picked up are thanks to him.

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