Oh, that's an English expression too?

Ok, so several weeks ago I ran across the phrase "république bananière" in French class, and I didn't think much about the fact that it translates to Banana Republic. I know what you're thinking. You're saying to yourself: "Well...duh. I don't know French but 'république' sure looks a lot like republic and 'bananière' does kinda look like banana. So, French major...how did you not think about what it translated to?" Well, glad you asked. Because I really didn't think that it likely translated into English directly and had the same meaning. Other than the store, I've never heard the term before. But sure enough, it is a word, and I have no idea why a store would want to be named that. Stop pretending like you know what it means because you totally know you're don't. You can't pull the wool over my eyes! =D hehehe. well, maybe you know, but all the same. Here are two definitions: the French one (thanks to my great Le Petit Larousse Illustré) and the English one (thanks to Merriam-Webster online).

Le Petit Larousse:

"État où le pouvoir réel est aux mains de puissances économiques extérieurs"

(State/Country where the real power is in the hands of exterior economic powers)

M-W.com:

A small dependent country usually of the tropics; especially one run despotically

(despotically = of, relating to, or characteristic of a ruler with absolute power or authority)

So...the two definitions kinda approach the same thing, but yet, not. The French definition seems to imply more corruption, like other more powerful countries are kind of to blame for the problems in the country, whereas the American one places the blame more on tyranny and also skirts the issue a bit. I mean, "dependent" could lead someone to think "dependent on what/whom" and so on, but it's less obvious. Especially as it simply gives the idea of a nice, tropical place where there are bananas (likely, the person who decided to name their store the Banana Republic just read this part and maybe didn't go through all the hoops to figure out the rest of the definition (by "all the hoops" I mean looking up "despotically" which unfairly uses the word "despot" in the definition, which is cheating because obviously if I knew what "despot" meant I would likely be able to guess what "despotically" meant. Seriously, EVERYONE knows you aren't supposed to use a word in it's definition, and that's certainly what it seems like to me!)).

Anyways, it's kind of interesting that there's this difference. Maybe because of the way the French view us or the way we view ourselves. You see, one thing I've learned in my French class is that the Western World really does have a lot to do with the corruption and violence in African countries. Like a lot. I never really knew what a "blood diamond" was before, but I get it now. In one of the books I read, it was about a child soldier, and what they did was protect the other soldiers in the regime as they dug for diamonds which the leaders would sell and then keep the money for themselves. It's really sad. So I hear it's similar with some particular element that's used in cell phones. So I kind of think that the French definition is likely more correct, and that the American one would really like to glaze over things...? Who knows. It might change by dictionary, too. Those are just the ones I happen to use.