Civil protection

The thirteenth entry is l’équipe bénévole, and the adjective inside it is a false friend with an honest face. It comes from the same Latin benevolus, well-wishing, as our « benevolent », and the two stand close enough that a reader lets one answer for the other. They do not. « Benevolent » in English describes a disposition — a benevolent employer, a benevolent smile, a benevolent fund — and says nothing whatever about money. Bénévole describes a contract, or rather the absence of one. It means unpaid, and only unpaid: une équipe bénévole is a team on nobody’s payroll, le bénévolat is voluntary work, and un bénévole is the person who does it. A saintly donor who writes large cheques is généreux and never bénévole; a thoroughly bad-tempered volunteer handing out bottled water is bénévole all the same. For the kindly sense French keeps a separate word, bienveillant, which never changes places with this one. So read bénévole as « unpaid » and the sentence stays true.