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à la short for (ellipsis of) à la manière de; in the manner of/in the style of [1]à la carte lit. "on the card, i.e. menu". In restaurants it refers to ordering individual dishes from the menu rather than a fixed-price meal.
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).
的士(dik1 si2, has no direct meaning, translated according to the English pronunciation.) vs 出租車(chū zū chē, meaning cars for renting.), translated from Taxi. 巴士(baa1 si2, has no direct meaning, translated according to the English pronunciation.) vs 公車(gōng chē, meaning public cars.), translated from Bus.
Furthermore, the list excludes compound words in which only one of the elements is from 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), magpie, marketplace, petticoat, and straitjacket.
The list is by no means exhaustive. Some of the words can be traced to specific languages, but others have disputed or uncertain origins. Words of disputed or less certain origin are in the "Dravidian languages" list. Where lexicographers generally agree on a source language, the words are listed by language.
These are French words, but they are also English words and are properly listed in List of English words of French origin#N rather than in this article. They are commonly understood words that are relatively standard English usage. See Webster, for example, pr Encarta or even Urban.
French phrases used by English speakers; Law French; Glossary of fencing, (predominantly from French). Glossary of ballet (predominantly from French) Lists of English loanwords by country or language of origin; List of English words of Gaulish origin; List of English words of Latin origin; List of English Latinates of Germanic origin
List of French words of Gaulish origin; List of French words of Germanic origin; List of French words of Germanic origin (A-B) List of French words of Germanic origin (C-G) List of French words of Germanic origin (H–Z)