What is the plural of
fez? How should we pronounce
millefeuille? And where would you see a
strabismus ?
This is a dictionary of words, phrases, and expressions which have found their way from other languages into common use in English.
The words can come from anywhere: the Latin, German, and French by whom Britain was once occupied, imports from Britain's own former colonies, and modern coinages from around the world.
The dictionary includes a guide to pronunciation, over 8,000 entries, and the words and phrases are drawn from over forty languages.
There are details of the history of each word or phrase, including language of origin and any original spelling, and an account of its current use in English.
Examples range from a cappella and ab initio through futon and moloch to tamagotchi and Zeitgeist. There is also a very useful index which lists the entries by country of origin and the date of the introduction into English.
Quotations are used throughout the text to illustrate the terms in their English context. A typical example reads as follows:
fin de siècle noun phrase (also fin-de-siècle plural fins de siècle (pronounced same) L19 French (= end of century). (Designating or characteristic of) the final years of a century, especially he nineteenth century, decadent. Also attributive or as adjective phrase.
- 'Fin de' is sometimes used jocularly in combination with an English word to make a phrase modelled on fin de siècle.
1995 Spectator Fins de siècle don't have too good a reputation.
attributive 1995 Spectator [Isiah] Berlin is acutely aware of the pathology of nationalism, of the distortions of fin de siècle Romantic voluntarism that lie at the root of Nazi paganism.
This is a wonderfully rich and useful source of reference. Like most other specialist dictionaries, it profits by ommission. That is, all the obvious and boring stuff is left out. What remains is an excellent source of reference for anyone who is interested in words and their origins.
Oh, and by the way, the plural of fez is fezzes. Bet you didn't know that.
