![\"Soign\u00e9\"](\"http:\/\/keeponthesunnyside.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/soignelores.jpg\")
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Soign\u00e9 – Also soign\u00e9e, an adjective, pronounced (sw\u00e4n-y\u0101’)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a French word, according to the dictionary, that means:<\/p>\n
\u201cSoign\u00e9 dining\u201d, a phrase my father often used while my brothers and I were growing up, to describe the meal and table set before him in the dining room. It was such a compliment to my mother on an exotic dinner she had made, fit for a king, cut glass dishes for the condiments, fine china and fancy serving bowls.<\/p>\n
In 1994, after 50 years of marriage, my parents both passed away, three months apart from cancer, and it was while writing the eulogy for their memorial service that I realized I had no idea how to spell this word, soign\u00e9. And for almost 10 years, no one I asked had ever heard of this word.<\/p>\n
The phrase \u201csoign\u00e9 dining\u201d, passed down to my husband and I along with the cut glass and fancy serving bowls, would make me smile whenever either of us would say it, thinking my father must have made the word up.<\/p>\n
Until 2004, I was watching a show I had taped on VHS and at the end, the last half of an old episode of Frazier was playing. Niles had gotten a good deal on some beluga caviar and the brothers were so excited. I was just about to hit the Stop button when I heard Frazier say, \u201cOh Niles, won\u2019t this make our soiree soign\u00e9?\u201d. I played it back several times. I couldn\u2019t believe it! More determined than ever, knowing then that it was a real word, I searched the internet for the spelling and definition again and came up with nothing.<\/p>\n
And then one day, I passed this woman coming into the building where I worked. She had overheard me tell this story about my father and the word, soign\u00e9, and she looked right at me and said, \u201cSoign\u00e9, it\u2019s a French word. Did you ever figure out how it is spelled?\u201d No, I hadn\u2019t, I told her. She wrote it on a post it note and handed it to me. The search and mystery had ended. Since then, I have heard the word used on Project Runway and in a song by The Pine Leaf Boys and on a few other occasions and it makes me smile every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Soign\u00e9 – Also soign\u00e9e, an adjective, pronounced (sw\u00e4n-y\u0101’) It\u2019s a French word, according to the dictionary, that means: Showing sophisticated elegance; fashionable: a soign\u00e9 little club. Well-groomed; polished: The soign\u00e9 celebrity granted a brief interview. \u201cSoign\u00e9 dining\u201d, a phrase my father often used while my brothers and I were growing up, to describe the meal … <\/p>\n