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According to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, the expression comes from the rare and obsolete French expression, which literally meant "double meaning" and was used in the senses of "double understanding" or "ambiguity" but acquired its current suggestive twist in English after being first used in 1673 by John Dryden.
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).
A bustle is a padded undergarment or wire frame used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. [ 1][ 2] Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to pull the back of a skirt down and flatten it.
The term "oracle" is also applied in modern English to parallel institutions of divination in other cultures. Specifically, it is used in the context of Christianity for the concept of divine revelation , and in the context of Judaism for the Urim and Thummim breastplate, and in general any utterance considered prophetic .
lit. "stamp"; a distinctive quality; quality, prestige. café. a coffee shop (also used in French for "coffee"). Café au lait. café au lait. coffee with milk; or a light-brown color. In medicine, it is also used to describe a birthmark that is of a light-brown color (café au lait spot). calque. a copied term/thing.
The word has some nuanced additional meanings (including as a loanword into various languages, including English). Traditionally depicted as male, a flâneur is an ambivalent figure of urban affluence and modernity , representing the ability to wander detached from society, for an entertainment from the observation of the urban life.
Doublet (linguistics) In etymology, two or more words in the same language are called doublets or etymological twins or twinlings (or possibly triplets, and so forth) when they have different phonological forms but the same etymological root. Often, but not always, the words entered the language through different routes.
Guillemet. Guillemets ( / ˈɡɪləmɛt /, [1] [2] also UK: / ˈɡiːmeɪ /, [3] US: / ˌɡiː ( j) əˈmeɪ, ˌɡɪləˈmɛt /, [4] French: [ɡijəmɛ]) are a pair of punctuation marks in the form of sideways double chevrons, « and », used as quotation marks in a number of languages. In some of these languages, "single" guillemets, ‹ and ...