Now For A Pure newbie question:

[alcmaeon-migration]

What is a bourse floor?

[crito]

It's numismatic jargon that means a coin show. Sounds more professional to say you "walked the bourse floor" than you "walked around at the coin show".

 

[Beijim]

What is a bourse floor?

 

Just as crito says, it's fancy talk for "place where you buy and sell coins."

 

bourse

 

\Bourse\, n. [F. bourse purse, exchange, LL. bursa, fr. Gr.? skin, hide, of which a purse was usually made. Cf. Purse, Burse.] An exchange, or place where merchants, bankers, etc., meet for business at certain hours; esp., the Stock Exchange of Paris. *

 

The "floor" is simply the part of the bourse where the business transactions actually occur (as opposed to its administrative offices, for example). It's just like when someone refers to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

 

Beijim

 

* Definition courtesy Dictionary.com.

[CarlWohlforth]

I knew the term for where stocks trade. So I think of a bourse floor as a place to trade stuff.

 

Thanks for the definition. Let me try it out in a sentence. I better bring my bourse to the bourse floor.

[Beijim]

Heh heh, use the word three times and it's yours!

 

Beijim

 

[crito]

Those British folk sound awfully intelligent. Next time I have some armour to sell I'll take it to the bourse floor. Just hope the colour of their money is the same and I don't have to stand in a cue.

 

I refer to the trading floor of the NYSE as, uh, the floor of the NYSE. It's only in the context of a coin show that "bourse" gets used on this side of the pond. In fact, I bet if you went to Wall Street and asked where the bourse floor is they'd look at you like you were speaking Chinese.

[crito]

Oh, BTW, I look forward to having this exact same discussion with you six months from now, NOT.

 

PLONK

 

[Beijim]

Those British folk sound awfully intelligent. Next time I have some armour to sell I'll take it to the bourse floor. Just hope the colour of their money is the same and I don't have to stand in a cue.

 

I refer to the trading floor of the NYSE as, uh, the floor of the NYSE. It's only in the context of a coin show that "bourse" gets used on this side of the pond. In fact, I bet if you went to Wall Street and asked where the bourse floor is they'd look at you like you were speaking Chinese.

 

Although I really have no idea what you're ranting about, I will for the sake of clarity explain that my reference to the NYSE floor was by way of illustrating the use of floor to mean the specific place where the action occurs, not the use of bourse to mean an exchange.

 

Also, it might be worth noting that (as the dictionary entry clearly indicates) bourse is French, not British.

 

Finally, I think you mean queue.

 

[Leothelion]

What is a bourse floor?

 

What everybody else said.

 

Leo