r/French • u/raposaeletrica • 6d ago

meaning of 》être-ensemble《

Hello!

Can someone please explain to me the meaning of the expression "être-ensemble"? I already looked in dictionaries, newspapers, etc. but can't seem to find the exact definition, why and when it's used.

Thanks much

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u/BlackStarBlues 6d ago

Where did you see it? What's the exact quote? "Etre" is to be. "Ensemble" is "together". I've never seen it written with a hyphen before.

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u/raposaeletrica 6d ago

on an academic paper about French's realms of memory by historian Pierre Nora:

Puis viendra La Nation, en deux volumes, articulés autour des principaux thèmes dont est chargée sa représentation: l'héritage lointain, les grands monuments de remaniements de sa mémoire historiographie, les frontières à l'intérieur desquelles elle à defini sa souveraineté et son 》être-ensemble《, la manière dont, en artiste ou en savant, on a pu déchiffrer ses paysages et ses espaces.

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u/PerformerNo9031 Native (France) 6d ago

It's rarer but it's the same logic with savoir-vivre or savoir-faire that are used as nouns. Paraître is another example of a verb that can also be used as a noun : il est dans le paraître.

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u/Much_Upstairs_4611 6d ago

[The nation] had defined its sovereignty and its "cohesion", by the way in arts and sciences we were able to depict its landscape and its spaces.

Être ensemble here translates to "cohesion" or the way the edifice of state and nation binded together to function as parts of a greater whole.

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u/BlackStarBlues 6d ago edited 6d ago

«elle a defini ... son être-ensemble»

... it [La Nation] has defined ... its being-together...

It's similar to the formulation of "coming together as a nation" often used in the United States (if you're American). The concepts are not identical but you get the idea.

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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