Lost and found in French translation | Brief letters

Compound issue | Quantum states | Brasserie | Latin etymology | Fascinating puzzle

To answer Karin Koller (Letters, 23 June), the French for bra, soutien-gorge, is masculine because compound words, consisting of a noun preceded by a verbal prefix, are nearly always masculine. The exceptions are when denoting women: for example, garde-malade, a home nurse. Nowadays, decollete would be a more correct translation of cleavage.
Gisele Earle
Oxford

Quantum physicists understand bras better than most thanks to Paul Dirac, whose analysis showed that the bra and the ket work together to form a special product, which was named bra-ket (derived from bracket). So the bra is a product of quantum mechanics.
Prof Brian Josephson
Department of physics, Cambridge University