French words and phrases used in English

French words and phrases used in English

1. English has been receptive to words and phrases from French for several centuries. The process has been continuous although there are two periods of special importance: the years after the Norman Conquest (11c), and the time of the French Enlightenment (18c) when movements in science and philosophy exposed gaps in the vocabulary of English (much as the French computing industry and media are absorbing English words at the moment). Many words from these periods have now been fully assimilated into English and behave like English words with no hint of foreignness (e.g. button, glory, ounce, place, prime, uncle, etc.). In the 19c, moral and other sensitivities sought refuge in the alien flavour of French in expressions such as affaire de cur (first recorded in English in 1809), crime passionnel (1910), and ménage à trois (1891), and in the domains of art, literature, food, and wine French was felt to have an appropriacy corresponding to perceived national stereotypes.

2. The process of assimilation into English is illustrated by the noun abandon, meaning ‘surrender to natural impulses’, which entered the language early in the 19c. It was first printed in italics as a foreign word and pronounced in the French manner with a nasalized final syllable. By the early 20c it was printed in ordinary roman type as an English word (in James Joyce's Ulysses, for example), and about the same time, or a little later (after Daniel Jones's English Pronouncing Dictionary of 1917), it acquired the anglicized pronunciation that is now familiar, aided by the pre-existence of the fully assimilated verb. Hundreds of French loanwords had a similar history between the time of their adoption into English and their complete assimilation, and others are in the process of doing so. In the assimilation process, accents have tended to constitute the most important feature of the original language when these are present, but in more recent usage the most familiar words, such as cafe and facade, have lost their accents as no longer being necessary orthographic supports for a partly French pronunciation. Nonetheless, pronunciation remains the element in a word's assimilation that is slowest to change.

3. The table below lists a selection of French words and phrases to illustrate four levels of adoption into English: A = printed in italic type and pronounced in a French manner (with some modification, e.g. in the articulation of r, the introduction of the indeterminate schwa sound (ǝ) for unaccented vowels, and the elimination of nasalized sounds); B = Gallicisms mainly confined to literary or scholarly use; C = printed in roman type but retaining some features of the French pronunciation; D = fully anglicized and printed in roman type.

word / phrase / approximate meaning / date / category

affaire de cœur / love affair / 19c / A

à merveille / wonderfully / 18c / B

arrière-pensée / ulterior motive / 19c / B

au fond / basically / 18c / B

au pied de la lettre / literally / 18c / B

baroque / of 17c and 18c art / 18c / D

billet-doux / love letter / 17c / C

bizarre / strange / 17c / D

blasé / indifferent / 19c / C

brunette / brown / 16c / D

cachet / sign of prestige / 17c / D

cafe / coffee house / 19c / C

camembert / cheese / 19c / C

cartel / association of manufacturers / 16c / D

charlatan / sham, fraud / 17c / D

clairvoyant / one who foresees / 17c / D

crime passionnel / crime of passion / 20c / A

déjà vu / already seen / 20c / C

eclair / cake / 19c / D

enfant terrible / unconventional person / 19c / A

escargot / edible snail / 19c / C

esprit de corps / team spirit / 18c / A

esprit de l'escalier / inspiration too late / 20c / B

facade / outward appearance / 17c / C

gigolo / paid escort or lover / 20c / D

laissez-faire / non-interference / 19c / C

mayonnaise / thick sauce / 19c / D

ménage à trois / household of three / 19c / A

nom de guerre / name assumed in war / 17c / A

nom de plume / pen-name / 19c / C

pièce de / most remarkable item / / / /

résistance / / 18c / A

point d'appui / strategic point / 19c / B

sobriquet / nickname / 17c / C

soi-disant / so-called / 18c / B

son et lumière / sound and light effects / 20c / C

touché / word used to concede a point / 20c / C

tour de force / feat of skill / 19c / C

tournedos / cut of beef / 19c / C