French

By train —

from London —

to Paris.

It is estimated that some 10,000 purely French words are used in English — around 29 per cent of the total. The focus here will be on a few French phrases that are seen as still being ‘French imports.’ These you will sometimes see in italics when used in English text (but the more frequently used, the less so). A great many of the other French words have become so ingrained into English that they are actually considered as English ones (e.g., voyeur, sabotage, entrepreneur, critique, ballet) and thus, aren’t italisised.

Latin words make up around another 30 per cent of today’s modern English vocabulary. For Latin terms used in academic English click here.

Apropos

preposition
With reference to something/someone. “Jameela remarked apropos the seminar, ‘It’s not going to cut ice with the other side.'”
–
adjective
Very appropriate to a particular situation. “The book’s reference to power politics is apropos for the current situation.”

Art nouveau

A style of decorative art, architecture, and design prominent in western Europe and the USA from about 1890 until the First World War (1914) and characterised by intricate linear designs and flowing curves based on natural forms.

An original poster

Art nouveau – a contemporary take.

Art nouveau, orignal poster advertising soap.

Au fait

To have a good or detailed knowledge of something. “Jameela was fully au fait with English literature.”

Carte blanche

Literally: “white card” but means to be given the complete freedom to act as one wishes. “The architect given carte blanche to design the house.”

Cliché

A phrase or opinion that is overused (and therefore shows a lack of original thought).

Déjà vu

A feeling of having already experienced the present situation.

De rigueur

Required or expected, especially in terms of following fashion.

Détente

The easing of diplomatic tension. The reduction of problems/hostility, especially between countries. “The UK’s policy of detente acted to improve relations with Russia.”

Façade

The front view of an object (from the Italian facciata, or face). It can also mean a fake persona, as in “putting on a façade” (the ç is pronounced like an s).

Fait accompli

Literally: “accomplished fact.” Something that has already happened and is thus unlikely to be reversed; ‘a done deal.’

Faux pas

“False step”: A breaking of accepted (but unwritten) social rules.

Laissez-faire

(To) “Let do.” This term is often used within the context of economic policy or political philosophy, meaning: leaving something alone, or to not interference with something.

Objet d’art

A work of art, commonly a painting or sculpture; also a utilitarian object displayed for its aesthetic qualities.

Panache

Verve; flamboyance. To do something with panache, is to do that something with style.

Par excellence

“By excellence”: quintessential. The finest example of something.

Pastiche

A derivative work; an imitation; a cheap copy and paste job.

Per se

adverb
By or in itself or themselves; intrinsically. “It is not these facts per se that are important.”

Rapprochement

The establishment of cordial relations, often used in diplomacy.

Raison d’être

The most important reason or purpose for someone or something’s existence.

Riposte

A quick retort in speech or action, or in fencing, a quick thrust after parrying a lunge.

Roman-à-clef

A novel in which real people or events appear with invented names. So, it is relevant to novels about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the “key” is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction.

Tête-à-tête

“Head to head.” An intimate get-together or private conversation between two people.

Touché

Acknowledgment of an effective counterpoint; literally ‘touched’ or ‘hit!’

Vis-à-vis

“Face to face [with].” In comparison with or in relation to; opposed to.

Volte-face

A complete reversal of opinion or position, about face.

More cultural and less academic:

Derrière

Rear; buttocks; literally, one’s “behind.”

Dieu et mon droit

“God and my right.” Motto of the British Monarchy; appears on a scroll beneath the shield of the coat of arms of Great Britain.

Traditional

Contemporary

Enfant terrible

A “terrible child.” A person who behaves in an unconventional or controversial way.

Femme fatale

“Deadly woman”: an attractive woman who seduces and takes advantage of men for her personal goals, after which she discards or abandons them.

Film noir

A genre of dark-themed movies from the 1940s onward that focus on stories of crime and immorality.

Ménage à trois

“Household for three”: a sexual arrangement between three people; a “threesome.”

Renaissance

Rebirth, a cultural movement in the 14-17th centuries.

Voyeur

Literally, “someone who sees.” Somebody who looks at someone without them knowing; a.k.a., a “peeping Tom.”

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In English informal speech, a French kiss, also known as a deep kiss, is an amorous kiss in which the participants’ tongues extend to touch each other’s lips or tongue. A “kiss with the tongue” stimulates the partner’s lips, tongue and mouth, which are sensitive to the touch and induce physiological sexual arousal.

we live…

we die…

down and out

controlled

contained

Sometimes it’s alright not to be alright

ENGLISH LIT.

English style guide
The English language
Booker / “Nobel” / Pulitzer
Elizabethan era / “Love letters”
“Definitive List of Literary Works”
French in English / Latin in English
Anthology / Chronology / Terminology
Phrases & idioms with their etymologies
Literary criticism: analysing poetry & prose
Glossary of works, writers and literary devices:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
📙 Books 📕 Poets 📗 Thinkers 📘 Writers

face-with-stuck-out-tongue-and-winking-eye

READING LISTS ETC.

WRITERS

POETS

PHILOSOPHERS

PSYCHOLOGISTS

POLITICAL FIGURES

BOOKS OF FICTION ^⅋

NON-FICTION BOOKS ^⅋

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was a French writer, philosopher and political activist. She is known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. — The Second Sex

A Room of one's own — A Room of One’s Own

War and Peace is the 1869 novel by Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It is regarded as a classic of world literature. (The novel chronicles the French invasion of Russia and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families.) Tolstoy said War and Peace is "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle." Tolstoy regarded Anna Karenina as his first true novel. — War and Peace

The Trial, by Franz Kafka (1914 [1925]) -- A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral. — The Trial

Brave New World (1932) is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist (one Bernard Marx). In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World at number five on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th c. — Brave New World

Beloved is a 1987 novel by the late American writer Toni Morrison. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and, in a survey of writers and literary critics compiled by The New York Times, it was ranked the best work of American fiction from 1981 to 2006. The work, set after the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865, was inspired by the life of Margaret Garner, an African American who escaped slavery by crossing the Ohio River to Ohio, a free state. Garner was subsequently captured and decided to kill her infant daughter rather than have her taken into slavery. — Beloved

The Prophet “If you love somebody, let them go, if they don’t return, they were never yours.”	The Essential Rumi “Lovers do not finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along.”
Ways of Escape: a journey of sorts A short excerpt from the book: “I was dead, deader than dead because, I was still alive.”	The Significance of Literature A podcast series that chronologically charts the key works of poetry and prose.

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