Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A pseudo-French expression in English is a word or expression in English that has the appearance of having been borrowed from French, but which in fact was created in English and does not exist in French. Several such French expressions have found a home in English. The first continued in its adopted language in its original obsolete form ...
The modern French phrase is "à double sens". in lieu (of) "in place (of)"; partially translated from the existing French phrase au lieu (de). léger de main (legerdemain) "light of hand": sleight of hand, usually in the context of deception or the art of stage magic tricks. Meaningless in French; the equivalent is un tour de passe-passe ...
(Even here in Canada, where we learn French in school, I think most people my age — or even older — don't realize that the word "croissant" comes from the French word for "crescent". They might know, in the context of the French language, that "croissant" indeed means "crescent"; but when you use that word in English, you only think of the ...
It excludes combinations of words of French origin with words whose origin is a language other than French — e.g., ice cream, sunray, jellyfish, killjoy, lifeguard, and passageway— and English-made combinations of words of French origin — e.g., grapefruit (grape + fruit), layperson (lay + person), mailorder, magpie, marketplace, surrender ...
Paraphrase: "I don't look handsome; I am handsome." Some South Slavic words that have no English counterparts are doček, a gathering organized at someone's arrival (the closest translation would be greeting or welcome, although a 'doček' is not necessarily positive); and limar, a sheet metal worker.
If "avant la lettre" is an expression, a phrase, on the other hand "baguette" is a word, a term. Since the page contains a list of both French terms and phrases used by English speakers, I don't see why "expressions", ie phrases, should be substituted for "terms and phrases". The title should be "List of French terms and phrases in English".
Generally, words coming from French often retain a higher register than words of Old English origin, and they are considered by some to be more posh, elaborate, sophisticated, or pretentious. However, there are exceptions: weep , groom and stone (from Old English) occupy a slightly higher register than cry , brush and rock (from French).
[3] [4] The phrase "pardon my French" is recorded in the 1930s and may be a result of English-speaking troops returning from the First World War. [4] The phrase has been used in broadcast television and family films where less offensive words are preceded by "pardon my French" to intensify their effect without violating censorship or rating ...