8506 repriser to mend, to darn. From reprise (“resumption”, “recovery”), literally “re-taking” or “taking back”. When you mend something, you bring it back to its original state. This verb is much less common than its noun. Example, repriser une chaussette (“to mend / darn a sock”).

8507 sobre sober (cognate); temperate, abstemious. This word should not be confused with Spanish sobre (“over”). Example, sobre en carbone (“low in carbon”).

8509 ventouse suction cup, plunger. From Latin ventosa (“windy”), from ventus (“wind”), hence French vent (“wind”) and English vent. The semantic connection may be on the fact that a suction cup creates air pressure. This word has entered English as a medical term; a ventouse is used on a baby’s head to assist in childbirth. Example, ventouse à déboucher (“plunger (for unclogging)”).

8510 piment hot spice, chili pepper or powder. From Latin pigmentum (“pigment”). For loss of g in gm, see the headword entry for dessiner. Note English pepper is better translated as poivre in French, and pigment still spelled pigment. Also note French épice refers to spice in general, which may or may not be spicy in taste in the sense of “hot”, while a piment spice is definitely spicy.

8516 bonnement simply. This word is only used in tout bonnement (“quite simply”, tout simplement) in Modern French. Its apparent literal meaning, “good-ly” or “well”, is served by the word bien.

8521 décès death, decease (cognate), mort. This word is more formal than mort. Examples, le décès du / la mort du président (“the president’s death”; note décès is masculine, and the form is invariable); les avis de décès publiés sur le Web (“obituaries published online”).

8522 cohérent coherent, consistent, conséquent. Note that this word is often translated as “consistent” (which has no French adjective spelled similarly) and that conséquent can be a synonym. Example, son argument est cohérent (“his argument is consistent / coherent”).

8523 chauve-souris (flying mammal) bat. Literally “bald mouse”. Seeing semantic difficulty, many suspect that chauve (“bald”) was due to an error in history, a confusion with the word meaning “owl” (chouette in French, whose Frankish etymon is *kawa or *kahu), or “blind” (caecus in Latin). But Philip Ernest Brette in his 1876 book argued that “bald mouse, because of its wings, being membranaceous, having no feathers”. Note this word is feminine. See also chauve, souris.

8524 randonnée (n.) ramble, walking, trek. From randonner (“to trek”). Cognate with random. Examples, une randonnée pédestre (“hiking”); un sentier de randonnée (“a hiking trail”).

8530 taupe mole (burrowing mammal, or undercover agent). From Latin talpa (“mole”). This word has entered English vocabulary referring to a dark brownish color, like that of a mole. As a mnemonic, imagine at the top of a hill, there is a deep mole’s burrow. Example, myope comme une taupe (“blind as a bat”, literally “myopic as a mole”).

8541 athée atheist; atheistic. From Latin atheos (“atheist”), from Ancient Greek. This word can be of either gender depending on the person. Not all -ist words have the -iste ending in French and this is an example. Note this word is unrelated to Athènes (“Athens”) or athlète (“athlete”).