Time relations

The thirty-second entry is discontinu, and the English word that springs to mind has two letters too many. « Discontinued » is a past participle and tells a story with an ending: a product that is no longer made, a service that has been withdrawn, a medicine the doctor has stopped prescribing. Whatever it names is over. Discontinu is a plain adjective and describes a pattern that is still going on: it works, then it does not, then it works again. Un signal discontinu is an intermittent signal, une ligne discontinue is the broken line down the middle of a road that drivers are allowed to cross, and un effort discontinu is effort made in fits and starts. The true English relative is « discontinuous », which is correct and rather technical; in ordinary prose the choice is « intermittent », « broken » or « on and off ». For « discontinued » the French reaches for other words altogether: a range is arrêté, a model is retiré de la vente, a treatment is interrompu. Read the entry as a rhythm, never as a death notice.