Hartley's Foreign PhrasesOne of the delights of the English language is its extraordinarily diverse vocabulary, much of which isn't really English at all! Think of eating or cooking, and you will be reaching to the French; to the Italian for musical expression; to the German for states of mind or soul; to the Spanish or Portuguese for song and dance; to the shared Latin roots for precision and concision. Who has not endured angst or, at least, esprit d'escalier, for failing to find - pronto - le mot juste? |
Common terms and phrases
abbreviated adjective adopted Aeneid American anglicized appears applied ça ira called calque century characteristic Church Cicero Classical common comprising court dance denote Dictionary dish Eiswein Empire England English word English-speakers especially etymology example expression Fascist feminine figuratively formerly France French Lexicon French word frequently G. B. Shaw German Greek H. W. Fowler hence Horace hypallage instance Italian Italian word Italy judgement known language Latin Law French letter Lexicon Literally Lord meaning mediaeval Mischling modern Nazi normally noun nowadays originally Paris particular party past participle perhaps person phrase play plural popular Portuguese pronounced pronunciation quod quotation quoted reference Roman Satires Saul Bellow sense sherry sometimes song sound Spain Spanish specifically speech spelling spelt style syllable term thing tonic accent translation Trevor Martin usually verb verse vowel wine word derives written Yiddish