stage (new meaning)

[jpyvr]

Term: stage (verb) - I'm not sure because I've only seen it in print, but I believe that in this usage the pronunciation would rhyme with Taj, not with age.

Your definition or explanation: To work temporarily as an apprentice, particularly as a chef-trainee in a European kitchen.


Example: Next year, I hope to stage with Chef Pierre Dufour at his 3-star restaurant Le Rat Qui Ronge.


One or more places you have seen the term: Headline on The Huffington Post - "Olympic Gold Medalist Stages at Renowned French Restaurant."


Have you looked for this term or meaning in dictionaries, and not found it? Yes ____ No ___

 

[Nunty]

Isn't this a loan word from French? Interesting if it's come into popular use.

 

[Momerath]

I'm surprised to learn that this word is now used in English and even more so to find that it has already been turned into a verb.

It's not in the OED or Websters (online versions) with this meaning.

It may be haute cuisine jargon.

 

[swift]

Good morning, guys.

Stage comes from Old French "estage", as it appears in Merriam-Webster Unabidged:

Etymology: Middle English, from Old French estage (also, position, place, stay, habitation), from (assumed) Vulgar Latin staticum, from Latin stare to stand + -aticum -age

"stage." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (11 Sep. 2010)

This is a neologism of sense. The pronunciation may be, as stated by jpyvr, /stɑʒ/, but I can't tell whether this is the actual pronunciation since I've only read this term.

Here's a definition I found for "staging":

Staging means to work as a stagiaire, which, basically is the French term for a chef's apprentice.

http://www.cuisinenet.com/digest/custom/restaurant/staging.shtml

 

[Nunty]

Many kitchen and dining terms are French loan words: chef, sous chef, maître d'(hôtel)... so this should not surprise us, I guess.

 

[jpyvr]

It's definitely a French loan word, in this sense, and also definitely connected with gastronomy, which, as Nunty points out, is full of words that come from French.

 

[boops boops]

It may have been culinary in the past but not any more. The word stage has long been widespread -- in the Dutch language as well as in French -- for a period of student work experience in any discipline. It's surprisingly hard to find a good English equivalent, so I would say stage is a welcome addition. BB

 

[killerbees]

The pronunciation may be, as stated by jpyvr, /stɑʒ/, but I can't tell whether this is the actual pronunciation since I've only read this term.

That's how I hear it pronounced in the US, at least. When I first started working in restaurants I only heard it in reference to cooks working as apprentices (as swift already stated), but more recently I've heard it in reference to servers who are working a "test run" type shift while competing against others for employment.

 

[SydLexia]

This has come into British English, at least among people who know Brussels and the EU.

/stɑʒ/ "a stage at the Commission".

syd

 

[JamesM]

It may have been culinary in the past but not any more. The word stage has long been widespread -- in the Dutch language as well as in French -- for a period of student work experience in any discipline. It's surprisingly hard to find a good English equivalent, so I would say stage is a welcome addition. BB

Wouldn't we just call this "intern" or "apprentice" (both verbs as well as nouns in English)? I can understand using the French word in cuisine, since so many of the words are borrowed from French in that profession. It seems to me, though, that we have serviceable words in English for "a period of student work experience" for general use.

 

[Welshie]

"Intern" doesn't have much currency in British English. It sounds very American to me. An apprentice is someone who works closely with a master tradesman to learn his craft - It doesn't reply apply to periods of student work experience. In my university, they were called "placements".

 

[celtique]

I agree that the word is of French origin. I worked at the U.S. headquarters of a major French corporation and many French university-level students would spend the summer at our offices getting American work experience. The students were "stagiaires," but when talking about them, instead of saying, for example, "Il est stagiaire," they'd more often say, "Il fait le stage."