Glossary of French words and expressions in English
Many words in the English vocabulary are of French origin, most coming from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern English. English words of French origin, such as art, competition, force, money, and table are pronounced according to English rules of phonology, rather than French, and English speakers commonly use them without any awareness of their French origin.
This article covers French words and phrases that have entered the English lexicon without ever losing their character as Gallicisms: they remain unmistakably "French" to an English speaker. They are most common in written English, where they retain French diacritics and are usually printed in italics. In spoken English, at least some attempt is generally made to pronounce them as they would sound in French. An entirely English pronunciation is regarded as a solecism.
Some of the entries were never "good French", in the sense of being grammatical, idiomatic French usage. Others were once normal French but have either become very old-fashioned or have acquired different meanings and connotations in the original language, to the extent that a native French speaker would not understand them, either at all or in the intended sense.
Used in English and French
A
; à la: short for à la manière de; in the manner of/in the style of; à fond: lit. "to the bottom"; thoroughly, completely, with maximum effort or intensity. Often used to describe giving one's all in a particular endeavor, as in "going à fond" in sports or other activities, or as in discussion "we discussed the subject à fond".
; 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. In America "à la carte menu" can be found, an oxymoron and a pleonasm.
; à propos: regarding/concerning
; affaire de cœur: lit. a love affair
; aide-de-camp: lit. "camp helper"; A military officer who serves as an adjutant to a higher-ranking officer, prince or other political dignitary.
; aide-mémoire: lit. "memory aid"; an object or memorandum to help one to remember things, or a diplomatic paper proposing the major points of discussion.
; amour propre: "Self-love", self-respect.
; amuse-bouche or amuse-gueule: lit. "mouth-amuser"; a single, bite-sized hors d'œuvre. In France, the exact expression used is amuse-gueule, gueule being slang for mouth. The expression refers to a small mouthful of food, served at the discretion of the chef before a meal as an hors d'oeuvre or between main courses.
; ancien régime: a sociopolitical or other system that no longer exists, an allusion to pre-revolutionary France
; aperçu: preview; a first impression; initial insight.
; apéritif or aperitif: lit. that "opens" the appetite, a pre-meal drink. In colloquial French, un apéritif is usually shortened to un apéro.
; appellation contrôlée: supervised use of a name. For the conventional use of the term, see Appellation d'origine contrôlée.
; appetence: 1. A natural craving or desire 2. An attraction or affinity; from the French "appétence", derived from "appétit". In French, this has a high register language.
; après moi, le déluge: lit. "After me, the flood", a remark attributed to Louis XV of France, referring to the impending end of a functioning French monarchy and predicting the French Revolution. It is derived from Madame de Pompadour's après nous, le déluge, "after us, the flood". The Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, famously known as the "Dambusters", uses this as its motto.
; arête: a narrow ridge. In French, also fishbone; edge of a polyhedron or graph; bridge of the nose.
; armoire: a type of cabinet; wardrobe.
; arrière-pensée: ulterior motive; concealed thought, plan, or motive.
; Art Nouveau: a style of decoration and architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It takes capitals in French.
; attaché: a person attached to an embassy; in French it is also the past participle of the verb attacher
; attaque au fer: an attack on the opponent's blade in fencing, e.g. beat, expulsion, pressure.
; au contraire: on the contrary.
; au courant: up-to-date; abreast of current affairs.
; au fait: being familiar with or know about something.
; au gratin: "with gratings", anything that is grated onto a food dish. In English, specifically 'with cheese'.
; au jus: lit. "with juice", referring to a food course served with sauce. Often redundantly formulated, as in 'Open-faced steak sandwich, served with au jus.' No longer used in French, except for the colloquial, être au jus.
; au naturel: 1. a. Nude. b. In a natural state: an au naturel hairstyle. 2. Cooked simply. Also used in French heraldry to mean "proper" i.e. in natural colours.
; au pair: a young foreigner who does domestic chores in exchange for room and board. In France, those chores are mainly child care/education.
; au revoir!: "See you later!" In French, a contraction of Au plaisir de vous revoir.
; au sec :lit. "almost dry", reducing liquid to the point of almost being dry though the food is still moist.
; avant-garde : applied to cutting-edge or radically innovative movements in art, music and literature; figuratively 'on the edge', literally, a military term, meaning 'vanguard' or "advance guard", in other words, "first to attack".
; avant la lettre: used to describe something or someone seen as a forerunner of something before that thing was recognized and named, e.g., "a post-modernist avant la lettre", "a feminist avant la lettre". The expression literally means "before the letter", i.e., "before it had a name". An alternative modern French version of this expression is avant l'heure.
; avoirdupois: used in Middle English, avoir de pois = commodities sold by weight, alteration of Old French aveir de peis = "goods of weight". In Modern French, only used to refer to English weight measures, as in une livre avoirdupois as opposed to une livre troy.
B
; baguette: a long, narrow loaf of white bread with a crisp crust, often called "French bread" or "French stick" in the United Kingdom. In French, a baguette is any long and narrow stick-like object such as a chopstick; a rectangular diamond cut to 25 facets and a magic wand.; banquette: a long upholstered bench or a sofa.
; beaucoup de: Used interchangeably with the English equivalent of "lots of/many/a great number of". Appropriate when the speaker wants to convey a greater positive connotation and/or greater emphasis. Often used as an informal expression, mostly in small regional dialect-pockets in the Canadian Prairies and the American South, especially in Alberta and Louisiana respectively.
; Beau geste: lit. "beautiful gesture", a gracious gesture, noble in form but often futile or meaningless in substance. This French expression has been on the periphery of the standard English lexicon since the appearance of P. C. Wren's Beau Geste, the first of his Foreign Legion novels.
; Beau idéal: lit. "beautiful ideal," used to suggest the perfect or most supreme version of something to exist. The expression was coined during the late 18th century during the aesthetic period known as classicism. Invoking the balance and refinement of Greek and Roman art and architecture, the term was used for examples of such that conformed to purity, wholesomeness, equilibrium, and simple elegance.
; Beaux-Arts: monumental architectural style of the early 20th century made famous by the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
; bel esprit : lit. "fine mind"; a cultivated, highly intelligent person.
; Belle Époque: a period in European social history that began during the late 19th century and lasted until World War I.
; belles-lettres: lit. "fine letters"; literature regarded for its aesthetic value rather than its didactic or informative content; also, light, stylish writings, usually on literary or intellectual subjects.
; bien entendu: well understood, well known, obvious – "of course".
; bien pensant: lit. "well thinking"; right thinking, orthodox. Formerly implied wilful blindness to dangers or suffering faced by others but, nowadays corresponds to "politically correct". The noun form bien-pensance is rarely seen in English.
; billet-doux: lit. "sweet note", love letter
; blasé: unimpressed with something because of overfamiliarity, jaded.
; bon appétit: lit. "good appetite"; "enjoy your meal".
; bon mot : well-chosen word, particularly a witty remark
; bon vivant: one who enjoys the good life, an epicurean.
; bon voyage: lit. "good journey"; have a good trip!
; boudoir: lit. "sulking place"; a woman's private dressing or sitting room in a house.
; bourgeois: member of the bourgeoisie, originally councilmen, burghers or even aristocrats living in towns in the Middle Ages. Now the term is derogatory, and it applies to a person whose beliefs, attitudes, and practices are conventionally middle-class.
; bric-à-brac: small ornamental objects, less valuable than antiques; a collection of old furniture, china, plates and curiosities. Cf. de bric et de broc, corresponding to English "by hook or by crook", and brack, refuse.
; bricolage: to improvise or assemble something useful from what happens to be at hand; to expedite or economize a project with readily available components, versus a kit or outside sources; to reuse spare parts for other than their original purpose; to create something new by arranging old material; to create a new, valuable purpose for an object that has completed its original purpose and would otherwise be discarded. Connotes an intrepid do-it-yourself spirit or clever repurposing. Differs from tinkering which merely modifies an existing arrangement. The term is used metaphorically to describe inventive philosophy, theories, and practices in business and academic fields, where new concepts are found in interactions of old ideas.
; brioche: a sweet yeast bun, kind of a crossover between a popover and a light muffin; French also use the term as slang for 'pot belly', because of the overhang effect.
; bureau : government office; an agency for information exchange. Also means "desk" in French, and in the U.K.