Pot-au-Noir

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See also: pot au noir and pot-au-noir

French[edit]

French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Pronunciation[edit]

Proper noun[edit]

Pot-au-Noir m

  1. (geography) doldrums
    Synonym: zone de convergence intertropicale
    • 1955, Claude Lévi-Strauss, chapter VIII, in Tristes Tropiques, Plon, published 1993, →ISBN, page 79; republished as John & Doreen Weightman, transl., Tristes Tropiques, Penguin, 2011, →ISBN:
      On approchait du Pot-au-Noir, redouté des anciens navigateurs. Les vents propres aux deux hémisphères s’arrêtent de part et d’autre de cette zone où les voiles pendait pendant des semaines, sans un souffle pour les animer.
      — We were approaching Le Pot-au-Noir (the Doldrums) which was greatly feared by the old navigators. The winds peculiar to both hemispheres stop on either side of this area, and the sails would hang for weeks on end without a single breath of wind to stir them into life.