Content tagged with “french” under “Stuff I Looked Up”

“ This is another name for a slaughterhouse. It comes from a French word for ‘to strike down.’ ”

“This is literally French for ‘aid in the [military] camp’ or ‘camp assistant.’ It’s a title for the assistant of someone with high rank. Almost all references I saw had a military or royal context to them. The civilian title would be ‘administrative assistant’ or ‘chief of staff.’ The pronunciation…”

“ It literally means ‘black beast’ in French. The first word is pronounced ‘bet.’ In several definitions, I found the word ‘bugbear.’ A bugbear is a random, scary mythical creature, the name of which also means something to be avoid, or a pet peeve. ”

“ It’s literal French for ‘well thinking’ or ‘good thinking.’ ”

“ This is literally French for ‘of course,’ which isn’t interesting, but I’ve never seen it used in an English context before. ”

“This a French word to describe a creamy soup. It used to refer to shellfish-based soups: crab bisque, lobster bisque, etc. But it can also refer to any soup with a cream base. Etymology is disputed. Some sources claim it refers to the Bay of Biscay, which is the water north of Spain and west of…”

“This phrase appeared in an infamous 2017 column in The Philadelphia Inquirer, entitled Paying the price for breakdown of the country’s bourgeois culture written by Amy Wax and Larry Alexander. In the column, Wax and Alexander complained that a move away from the traditional values and culture of…”

“This is the extreme western region of France. It’s mostly a peninsula that extends into the Atlantic. The largest city in the region is Rennes, with about 750,000 in its metro area. (Interestingly, the two other large cities are named Vannes and Nantes, which points to some common etymology.)…”

“ This is literal French for ‘cry from the heart.’ ”

“French for ‘putting in place,’ it refers to the physical workspace of a craftsman. It was popularized as a term for a chef’s work area, arranged and organized for maximum productivity, but now refers to the general idea of optimizing one’s physical – and increasingly virtual – environment for work….”

“The name is French for ‘single shell.’ This is a type of vehicle where the main load-bearing structure is an enclosed shell, rather than behind (1) body-on-frame, or (2) unibody. A unibody vehicle has panels which are fastened together to provide structure. However, a true monocoque is…”

“This is an expression that roughly translates to ‘obligation of the noble.’ It refers to the belief that the privileged people in society are obliged to assist others through charity. While sounding benevolent, in usage, it tends to imply a level of faux altruism, and gives justification for their…”

“Curiously, it’s not object (with a ‘c’), it’s objet . It’s French for ‘object or art’ or ‘art object’ or ‘work of art.’ The Wikipedia page notes: The term is somewhat flexible, and is often used as a broad term for ‘everything else’ after major categories have been dealt with. The key is ‘object.’…”

“It’s literally French for ‘work.’ So, to discuss ‘Picasso’s oeuvre’ is to simply discuss Picasso’s work. It’s pronounced differently in English and French, and, honestly, I got a lot of different opinions on it. The two most popular: One syllable, rhymes with ‘swerve’ (take away the ‘sw’) Two…”

“In the American usage, it’s a layered dish, served in a tall glass, so the layers are visible. A yogurt parfait is usually layers of yogurt, fruit, and granola An ice cream parfait is ice cream, fruit, and whipped cream In France, there’s another usage for a frozen custard dessert (no layering)….”

“It’s French, pronounced ‘PAT-twah.’ There’s a blurry line between what is a patois and what is an entirely different language. A common example is Jamaican English – is this a regional dialect, or a form of creole? Also murky is where the line sits between a ‘accent’ and a ‘dialect’ or patois. This…”

“ It’s literally French for ‘face to face.’ ”