This is how the people of Marseilles nicknamed the Radiant City of Marseilles built by Le Corbusier.
To understand the origins of this regional expression, we must begin by clarifying the term fada (touched by fairies).
It is a derivative of the old Occitan
fat
(fool, crazy) whose use spread from Provence to the rest of France through the books and films of Marcel Pagnol.
How!
Panisse wants to marry Fanny?
Oh!
the poor fool!
what a mentality!
but he is mad, this poor old man?
Marcel Pagnol – “Marius” (1931)
The fada is, originally, a very harmless simpleton who looks at the world with the eyes of a child, then the meanings of the noun and the adjective have slipped towards a more negative acceptance: silly, crazy, crazy.
It is sometimes used alone to punctuate a sentence, equivalent to
"I swear to you".
"When we finally arrived, fada, everyone was gone."
He also personifies the fan these days:
“Being crazy about OM.”
Women are not excluded from the club of fadas, since in the feminine, we find fadade.
Excerpt from
The most beautiful expressions of our regions
.
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