rond-de-cuir

English

Etymology

From French rond-de-cuir.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɒ̃ də ˈkwɪə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɹɔn də ˈkwɪɹ/

Noun

rond-de-cuir (plural ronds-de-cuir)

1. A French bureaucrat or functionary; an office worker.
   • 2013 March 11, Lara Marlowe, “Magic of living in Paris punctures pain of endless French bureaucracy”, in The Irish Times‎^[1]:

     In 1893, Georges Courteline immortalised France's petty bureaucrats in a satirical novel called Messieurs les Ronds-de-Cuir, after the leather cushions that civil servants sat on. The "ronds-de-cuir" are still ridiculed and detested. Like Courteline's bureaucrats, the tormentors of the préfecture derive sadistic pleasure from sending people away for ever more documents.

2. (colloquial, derogatory) A pen-pusher.

References

• "rond de cuir, n.". OED Online. March 2013. Oxford University Press. 14 March 2013

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɔ̃.də.kɥiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

rond-de-cuir m (plural ronds-de-cuir)

1. doughnut-shaped leather cushion to relieve haemorrhoids
2. (colloquial, derogatory) pen-pusher
3. leather patch (for elbows of clothing)

References

• "ROND-DE-CUIR. n. m. Il se dit familièrement et par plaisanterie des Employés de bureau", Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, eighth edition, 1932-1935
• rond-de-cuir, Collins Dictionary

Further reading

• “rond-de-cuir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.