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Ah, the French. Let's revisit a topic from nine months ago, and look at some further phrases from French. billet-doux (plural billets-doux) - a love letter (literally, sweet letter) Those who don't speak french will be close enough to the correct pronunciation with bil-ay DOO. The plural is pronounced with the last syllable as DOOZ. quote: | ||
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quote: I'm afraid that's incorrect. Since the second word remains the same in the plural, its French pronunciation also remains the same. If you were speaking French, and the phrase were followed by a vowel then the X would be sounded. Since the French for a note (le billet) is masculine, the adjective doux doesn't change in the plural; "lettres douces", however, is correct. The older English pronunciation is "billy do"; plural "billy dos" but as with "Marsails" it has regained more of its original French pronunciation. | |||
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amour propre (or "amour-propre"; literally, love of oneself) – self-esteem; typically with sense of excessive pride; vanity quote: | |||
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soi-disant (swah-dee-ZAHN) - self-styled One major dictionary erroneously adds "so-called" in its definition. Spectator columnist Taki Theodoracopoulos skewered himself with this very misunderstanding, in his column of February 24, 2001. quote: | |||
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raison d'etre (or raison d'être) – reason or justification for existing quote: | |||
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Member |
bete noire (or bête noire) – something especially hated or dreaded; a bugbear
quote: | |||
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Member |
bon vivant (bon vee-vahnt') – a person who lives luxuriously and enjoys good food and drink. quote: | |||
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Member |
au courant (oh' koo-rahn') - up-to-date. Note: some dictionaries say express this "up to date" in the sense of "fully informed", but I understand it to be more commonly used in the sense of stylish: "The shoes, the hair, the clothes — every last detail — was utterly au courant." quote: | |||
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I love French words. Two more of my favorites are: décolletage or risque. My mom used to use those words when she didn't approve of my dress. ![]() ![]() | |||
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Mom didn't -- but I did. ![]() | |||
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There once was a girl from Bryn Mawr Who committed a dreadful faux pas. She loosened a stay On her décolleté, Thus exposing her je ne sais quoi. | |||
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Pensee - Does anyone know this word? I found it defined on one site in onelook. However, it defined, "pensees", not "pensee" (as "thoughts"). Here is how I saw it used: "I was too immersed that day in composing my fourth pensee on the Northbrook hazing incident to consider joining any public-safety effort." | |||
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The Wikipedia definition you linked to seems to explain the meaning pretty well. What is your problem with it? | |||
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Arnie, I was confused because Wikipedia only referred to it as a plural word. Having never heard it, I wondered if it should only be used to mean "thoughts", even though my quote had it used as a singular word. However, after Tinman posted the OED site in Links for Linguaphiles, I looked it up there. They have it listed as "pensee." I am assuming that "pensive" is dervived from that word. | |||
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I had the occasion to use "voila" (sorry, even though I tried to use Tinman's previous directions, I wasn't able to get the accent mark to work) today, and I looked it up to understand more about the word. It means an expression of satisfaction, and while I didn't realize this, the dicationary says it's usually used "for a thing shown." E.g, "Voila! The cake is done!" So, it is related to the word "voyeur." I would not have guessed that! | |||
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Member |
As I recall in my French lessons about half a century ago, voila means "look there" and voici means "look at this". Both come from voir, to see. So the English equivalent of voila could literally be, "hey, look at that", which conveys a similar sense to that Kalleh suggests. Richard English | |||
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A more colloquial rendition of voici and violà might be "Here it is!" and "There it is!" (as in "There you have it, sports fans!" or whoever) | |||
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Actually, you meant voilà. A viola is a large sized violin. Voici and voilà come from vois ici (see here) and vois là (see there). | |||
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Yes, yes, but did you see my comment about the accent mark? Hab tried to help me, in a private topic, learn to use an accent mark (I know; it is called something else.) However, I still can't get it to work. How is this "voila'"? Best I can do! | |||
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Member |
But seriously, folks - Kalleh, if you "copy" my entire PM and then "paste" it into a brand new Word document, will it then behave properly? | |||
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<wordnerd> |
For you, Kalleh. | ||
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Junior Member |
Revanche- a usually political policy designed to recover lost territory or status. | |||
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And, what on earth happened to our Derek? He was on such a roll, too! Because Justice Scalia has been involved in a few controversies (that doesn't look right!) lately, a law professor, writing about him, called he an enfant terrible, meaning a person whose unconventional behavior embarrasses others. Now, politics aside, I do love that phrase. We really don't have a word or phrase for this, do we? | |||
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