Parties and celebrations

The list for an evening with people in it. Near the end is être ravi, and the English relatives of that word went two very different ways. Both come from Latin rapere, to seize by force. English kept the force: « ravished » is archaic and means carried off or violated, and « ravishing » drifted to mean stunningly beautiful. French kept the mildest branch and put it into everyday courtesy: les enfants sont ravis means the children are delighted, ravi de vous connaître is what you say on being introduced, and un spectacle ravissant is simply a lovely show — much weaker than « ravishing ». So the trap runs in both directions: ravi gets read as something intense when it is the plainest politeness available, and ravissant gets translated as « ravishing » when it means « charming ».