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Comment by clbrmbr | Hacker News Reader

Now I finally know what my Swiss mother-in-law says when the normal tablecloth is dirty and we need to improvise.

I thought “oh it’s like Plan B”, but never got why it’s D…. Now I get that D is a euphemism for “out of the shit” (démerde).

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Could be but my understanding is the D stands for débrouiller (se débrouiller = take oneself out of the fog). Kind of like the American "National Awareness Day" where people are encouraged to extract their heads and take note of the people in their surroundings.

(Se) débrouiller really means “to get by”/“to make do”/“to cope”/“to manage (be able to handle)”. Système D refers to managing a situation with a make-shift or unconventional solution.

I learned the term while learning french, working for Médecins sans Frontières Suisse. It was most definitely translated as démerde, not débrouiller.

I'm french, and both "se débrouiller" and "se démerder" mean exactly the same thing. "se démerder" is just more familiar/foul.

I would mostly use the familiar version if someone or an organization explicitly created the situation, like I must go to the post office but it's only open during my work hour, and closed the only day I can take an hour off. And System D is really débrouille to me

One funny thing about it in German speaking countries is this reference in the page:

> Examples for those are Trick 17 [de] in German, Trick 77 in Swiss German

It seems that something got lost in translation or Chinese-Whispered between Germany and Switzerland

As a french person: it is in fact much like "plan B" but in a more "this wasn't part of the plan, in fact the plan calls for specific things that we are going to improvise" way.

I mean to say that when we say "systeme D", it has its meaning on its own, separate from what the words signify. It is also used when talking about alternate means of acquiring objects, such as bargaining (in the commerce sense) or repurposing trash.

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