charrette

[prettygoodword]

charrette (shuh-RET) - n., a final, intensive effort to finish a project (esp. an architectural design) before a deadline.


Though also used in other fields, such as agile software development. Can also be used for a collaborative brainstorming meeting for a project. How the French word for cart came to mean this is an interesting question, but the usual story is that the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris would collect student drawings in a cart, with students jumping on to make last-moment corrections en charrette.

---L.

Comments

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Huh.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

That is very much a valid reaction to this word.

---L.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

The semantic drift is the "huh" part--I first met the word in context of Lancelot, as in le chevalier de la charrette, bumpty bumpty bump, noble ignominy &c. *tries to adjust worldview*

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Just about everyone who knows French has a reaction to that drift.

---L.