"scier" meaning "to stun" and "to bore"

[alan gould]

i was familiar with "scier" meaning "to saw" (wood).  "Mot du jour" also had 

"Ça m'a scié" (It stunned me) and  "Ce livre m'a scié" (bored me), saying both are familiar.  I looked them up in an online dictionary but didn't find them and when I looked up "bore," it didn't appear.  when i googled "Ça m'a scié", it appeared in the larousse dictionary.  so i'm wondering how often it's used in both these ways.  

merci d'avance    

[Chantal Savignat]

Hello

I never heard "scier"  meaning "to bore"

meaning "to stun" It's known, and not surprising and but not used every day. It's used to say "it stunned me" when you want to do a speech more lively or if you want to insist on the stunning result. It's  familiar so used with friends, or in a blog . why not in a text to repeat a speech or a text in a familiar level of language.

I think it was more used in the past, when I was younger. in 80'th. But now the young have new expressions more ... young  So now it's used by this 80th generation.

[tshwin]

Hi

I'm not sure what past years or centuries Chantal refers to. :)

Scier is used in both meanings, but the second one is more recent and therefore more readily understood.

1) Une scie is a bore or a nag (from scie, a song or tune that is repeated endlessly, ad nauseam). You'll find an close meaning to saw in English.

Scier is to bore (CNRTL : "Pop. Scier qqn, scier le dos de qqn. Le fatiguer, l'ennuyer (par la répétition constante de quelque chose" -- see the other uses of scier in the same online dictionary)

Also : « scier les nerfs ».

The subject is normally a person.

Example, to a child : Arrête de scier !

2) Scier, to astound, is normally used with something (not someone) as an explicit or implicit subject : La nouvelle nous a sciés. Ton frère m'a scié en m'apprenant la nouvelle. Quand j'ai entendu le prix, j'étais scié.

 In brief and to answer your specific question:  if you say  Ce livre m'a scié, people will spontaneously understand that you find the book amazing.

[Vedas]

Hello,

scier le dos de qqn definitly belongs to the past, I dare you to find someone today using such an expression!

Yes it meant something boring in reference to the monotonous sound of a saw and it first appeared in the 17th century but it's absolutely old fashioned now and I'm sure that most French people wouldn't understand the meaning of it today.

In the 19th century it also meant to mock/ to make fun of