It’s a big language, but a friend is looking for a word that means “a celebration in honor of one or more people graduating” and I’m stumped.
I would refer to such things as a “Graduation party” but is there an obscure word for it? Or could you make one up our of Greek or Latin roots? Have at it, Dopers.
It’s not what you’re looking for but there’s a festschriften (“festival, celebration + writing”), which is a volume of writings presented to a scholar on the occasion of attaining a certain age, or career milestone. (Which satisfies the thread title, but not the thread question, really, but it’s an interesting word, and I like interesting words.) These can be done in honor of a single person or in honor of an institution, so you could probably stretch it to a commemorative comic book done in honor of a bunch of people graduating at the same time.
But a keg party sounds like a lot more fun. Call it a bachelor-bachanalia.
Prom.
Fete. ". To celebrate or honor with a festival, a feast, or an elaborate entertainment. "*
*courtesy of thefreedictionary.com
However, I am unsure of the correct pronounciation. Is it “feet”, “fate” or “fett”?
Many people have cracked the obvious joke “a fête worse than death” so there’s only one pronunciation, really.
Thanks for the info. Reminds me of my last wedding…:mad:
I’ve only heard “fett,” myself. Looking at dictionary.com, it appears that “feyt” and “fett” are both acceptable.
Huh, I was about to make a comparison with tête-à-tête, but apparently some (apparently most, as it’s the first pronunciation given) people pronounce that “teyt-uh-teyt.” I’ve only heard “tett-uh-tett.”
In the context of graduating from university, a lot of Canadian unis call the graduation ceremony the Convocation, though I have a feeling that isn’t what you’re looking for. I’ve also heard commencement used, mostly for high school graduations.
FWIW, fête is pronounced as “feyt” or “fate” in French.
ETA: Tête is pronounced similarly to fête…“tayt” or “tate” is closer to the French than “tett”
jamboree
If I ever hosted a Star Wars party, I’d call it Boba Fete.
Really? It’s always sounded much closer to a short e than a long “a” to me. Example here.
The IPA symbol for the sound is “ɛː”, which is more similar to an “eh” sound than the American “ay”. It’s not a diphthong, as it is in English, and it’s midway between a short “a” as in “cat” and the the “e” as in “bed.” So I suppose it depends on how you hear it, but I think the short “e” sound is a closer approximation than “ay.”
This is the way I’ve always learned (and heard) it too. Is it a regional thing?
In Britain everyone seems to pronounce it as “fate”. In North America I’ve only ever heard “fett”. So maybe it’s a regional variation.
I don’t really know IPA, and I’m not sure about the distinction you’re trying to make, but as someone who speaks French, the sound - to my ear, at least - is nothing like the “a” in “cat” or the “e” in “bed”, unless you and I pronounce those words rather differently. I suppose you could say it’s similar to the stereotypical Canadian “eh”, but to me that’s a similar sound to the one in “feyt” or “fate” and nothing like “fett”.
The standard pronunciation of “fête” in French, which you’ll find in most dictionaries that show the phonetics, is indeed something like [fɛːt]. But I and presumably mnemosyne as well pronounce it with a diphthong. I’d say it sounds similar to “fight” in English, which would be something like [faɪt].
ETA: and yes, it’s a dialectal variant.
Heh, shows what I know.
You’d have to serve everyone those tapioca tea drinks, though.
That’s the thing nobody tells you about IPA. A symbol does not always mean the same sound. The French /ɛ/ is much more forward, and often sounds more like the American /e/. Heck, all French vowels tend to sound closer than they are to American ears.
This fact even led to problems with my singing teachers not realizing that Italian uses /a/ instead of /ɑ/. They were used to the French /a/, which is often exaggerated to the point of sounding like what Americans label as /æ/ (as I don’t believe /æ/ is a separate phoneme in French.)
That’s all well and good, but I’m giving the IPA and an audio example, and telling you that, to me, it sounds closer to a short e than a diphthong “AY.” My best description of it is midway between American short “e” and short “a,” but held a little bit longer.