Hello folk,
I'm writing with a historical-terminological query about the phrase, "Hors catégorie." Wikipedia tells me a few things: it was first used (formally, as a classification for the KOM jersey) in the Tour de France in 1979, but also that it was "originally used for those mountain roads where cars were not expected to be able to pass." That "originally" seems fairly vague to me, and the idea that there were mountain stages in 1979 still impassable to cars surprising (to say the least).
However, in 1979 (and still today--at least in the U.S.) if you say the phrase "hors catégorie" to a jazz fan, the immediate referent will be Duke Ellington. What I'm wondering is whether Jacques Goddet or Félix Lévitan was an Ellington fan. Or whether "hors catégorie" was idiomatic French before Ellington picked it up and continued in common usage as a tag for, well, beyond category while he was plastered with it.
Yours in linguistic curiosity,
Tim McGovern
Chicago, Illinois, USA