noyau

[eub]

In the cafe section of City Books, a gentleman was holding forth on contemporary poetic society to a small audience. I came in late, but he had strong opinions of some sort about Billy Collins. Now, he was using the word "noyau, n-o-y-a-u, a French word, the French always have a word" to mean a claque or a cabal -- of which he named names: "who's that poet of yours in San Francisco... yes, Foo Bar" -- which I think was suppressing poets he liked. I was tempted to pop in and ask "noyau, noyau, I vaguely recall that as being nougat, could you tell me more about this usage?"

Turns out it's originally from the Latin nux. It meant "a liqueur made of brandy flavoured with the kernels of certain fruits" (those being peach and apricot), and, yes, "a type of sweetmeat related to nougat" (the old almond-centric kind of nougat), and in transferred ethological use "a nucleus (of people)".