Our search tool – team Petit Robert or team Larousse?

Graphic elements play an important role in our search tool, especially to ensure a good readability and understanding of information. But now, as I was about to use the word “icon” with a hat, an awful doubt assailed me… is there really a hat on the “o” in the computer context? Am I confusing it with, for example, the rock icon?

Armed with my online dictionary, I open the Larousse which confirms the hat and gender: an icon. All is well my doubts are fading away. But yeah, I like to get a second opinion. So I open the Petit Robert, and then… disaster, not only does this one say loud and clear that it’s a masculine name, but there’s also no hat: an icon.

• An icon: “Graphic symbol displayed on a computer screen and corresponding, within a software, to the execution of a particular task” (Larousse).

• An icon: “Graphic element, pictogram which represents on the screen a file, a software, a command, etc. Click on an icon” (Petit Robert).

And you call yourself a linguist!

Um… that was in another life! But still, let’s make things perfectly clear, because I wouldn’t want to be singled out. Since both uses are theoretically correct, I would opt for the feminine version. There, I’ve said it, I’m team Larousse. As additional information, the French Academy agrees with me since it recommends abandoning the masculine version without a hat.

So why icons in Phyto-info?

An icon is primarily used to simplify explanations that are too long in an allotted space that is often too small, but not only that, the icon also serves to highlight important elements at a glance. So instead of going into long speeches to explain how to use, for example, yarrow in case of skin problems, we replace the words with graphic elements.

You will tell me, it is very nice to know that yarrow can help in case of dermatoses, what we would like to know is how to use it. And I totally agree.

So instead of starting with explanations of the style use the fresh or dry flowering tops of yarrow in an infusion and apply this infusion to the skin externally or use an infused oil previously prepared with the flowering tops of yarrow that you have dried in a dry and well-ventilated area also externally on the skin [breath], we use icons for a clear representation but above all more succinct.

• infusion + flowering top + fresh or dried + external use

• infused oil + flowering top + dried + external use

See you very soon for the next phyto-info newsletter!

sylvie