I can't find either of these verbs in this form in any source, yet they are given as options for 'rewatch'. Although mater (already listed as 'very familiar' in Larousse and as 'argot' by the Academie-Française) and regarder are listed, neither shows up anywhere in 're' form ? Is this just slang - adding re- to any base verb as needed ?
Can you explain their origin and why they would be acceptable here ?
Just to add to Chris' answer, as you can see from his example the prefix re can be very useful!
It means:
à nouveau = again
I believe reregarder and re-regarder are accepted nowadays.
(Se) remater un film is slang ( and appropriate for the situation described) for ' to watch -ourselves- a film again '.
In my time 'mater' was what boys did when they looked at girls a bit too intensely ... It can mean to spy on too and other things like to tame. I also found zieuter ( from les yeux pronounced lesZieux) to mean the same thing but pretty horrible in my opinion!
Here is an interesting page on current top slang expressions ( which includes 'mater'), you will need these if you try to watch any current French television.
Hope this helps!
Hi Maarten,
although you have a much more trustworthy fund of knowledge probably just in the other room, I'm going to attempt a reply:
Prepending re- to a verb has become a way to express repeated action in familiar French. There are a lot of re-verbs which have earned their own dictionary entry -- such as retrouver, rejoindre, repeter, renseigner, and, yes, regarder -- some don't. And in an attempt at parallel construction, they are forcefully re-trofitted with it. I'd say that reregarder and remater fall into this category and, hence, disqualify themselves from playing in the higher leagues of French.
A great example of the creative use of this instrument is provided by my French friend and conversation teacher. When her temperament moves her, she sometimes exclaimes, "Zut, zut et re-zut!"
The same could be said for "rewatch", I think. It's obvious what it means, and I might use it myself, but I don't really consider it a proper word.
I know mater in this context - it fits better with ogle or perve. There is no dictionary I can find that defines remater - it is not a word. A search in Robert and the académie dictionaries reveal not a single word starting with re(-)re-, which would be double use of the same prefix. Considering some of the other nit-picking that goes on here, I find it beyond belief that there would be an attempt to justify the use of these words, that don’t get a run in reputable dictionaries or conjugators, wordreference, google translate or even the slang dictionaries I can access. I don’t see references coming forward that show that these are regular words.
Please do not ever come back suggesting that some word or phrase or other is preferable when open-slather is the standard.
It seems to me to have the same status as "rewatch", so arguably it's an accurate translation. Both are in wiktionary, but not in more official dictionaries.
https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/remater
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