Nonsense, gibberish
and other delicacies

Dominique Mataillet

There are words that are quite ordinary and which, one day, who knows why, become omnipresent in public discourse. Back to school, neighborhoods, identity, for example, are among them. Others, such as resilience, hubris, disruption or ultracrepidarianism, coming from who knows where and sometimes used in an unorthodox way, experience the same fortune.
These are the words in the air of time that the author of this work likes to identify before dissecting them to better understand their origin, their evolution, the use that is made of them.
Whatever the terms and expressions discussed, the texts collected in this book aim to explore today's France, its political and social tensions, the challenges, particularly environmental, it faces, but also the richness of its culture, the liveliness of its regions. Throughout the pages, debates around the French language, its relevance, its permanence, its diversity, are omnipresent.