How many times have you noticed, when reading books or articles in English, that some authors seem to particularly delight in sprinkling their writings with French words and French expressions, although most of their readers literacy in la langue de Molière may in fact be very little, if not next to null?
Unlike our goal here in The French Blog, which is helping you gain new French vocabulary by inserting it into appropriate contexts, the use of French by these authors can at times reflect some kind of “stylistic pedantry”, if not outright “snobbism.” In other occasions, according to them, it is simply “for lack of a better term”—or let us just say, “the mot juste“!
Now, you may or may not “pardon their French“, so to speak, but whether or not you happen to be a serious student of la langue française, it may prove advantageous to recognize these “French allusions“, and fully understand their veiled significations.
We’ll go together through a few “famous” examples:
- Amour-propre:
In an article of “The New York Times” (January 4th, 2010), Clyde Haberman writes:→ Not necessarily as negative as the word orgueil (pride), the French term amour-propre designates self-esteem, and literally means “self-love.”
- Au courant:
In the “Philadelphia Enquirer” (October 27th, 2011), A.D. Amorosi writes: “Hipness is sought-after and high-value these days in the music world, so it’s fascinating to watch au courant acts trading on the market, fascinating to track their score daily on the hipness index.”- Beau Geste:
In his prequel to “The Art of Seduction”, best-selling author Robert Green writes in “The 48 Laws of Power”: “Caesar’s dramatic crossing of the Rubicon was a beau geste — a move that dazzled the soldiers and gave him heroic proportions.”→ It can translate in English as a “beautiful, magnanimous gesture”, displaying the self-sacrifice of the person who makes it.
- Bête Noire:
Two days ago, on the BBC website, North America Editor Mark Mardell wrote: “I get the impression that Mr Norquist, with his deadpan delivery and an impish sense of humour, delights in being the bete noire of the liberal establishment.“→ At any rate, “bête noire” translates as “black beast“, and stands for “archenemy“, “archnemesis“, “archfoe“, etc.
- Cordon sanitaire:
- Enfant terrible:
Not long ago, in the Washington Examiner (November 10th, 2011), Kelly Jane Torrance titled her article “Film’s enfant terrible makes surprisingly tame disaster“, referring to Danish director Lars von Trier.You can read more on this Danish director (of “Antichrist” and “Melancholia” fame) and other enfants “encore plus“ terribles in The French Blog’s “And the “Grands gagnants” (“Big Winners”) of the 2011 Cannes Festival Are…“)
- Idée fixe:
Similarly, you can also look up the meanings of other French allusions, such as “arriviste“, or its equivalents “parvenu” and “nouveau riche“; “les belles-lettres“; “une cause célèbre“; “un cri de cœur“; “un déjà vu“; “une danse macabre“; “dernier cri“; “une éminence grise“; “un faux pas“; “fin de siècle“; “une force majeure“; “un je ne sais quoi“; “un lèse-majesté“; “une messe noire“; “noblesse oblige“; “un nom de guerre” and “un nom de plume“; “une raison d’être“; “un roman à clef“; “une volte-face“; and, of course, “zut alors!“
