Posted
on November 25, 2014
Blasé
means unimpressed, indifferent, even apathetic. A teen who has seen
several amazing shows like Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas might be
blasé about a humble circus at a small county fair, and a person who
has done a lot of dangerous stunts might be blasé about things
others find scary.
Blasé,
in other words, is often a “been there, done that” kind of thing.
I
don't know how enthusiastic I can be about celebrating indifference!
But what I do like is a good excuse to study all the French words we
have adopted into the English language.
You
probably know that many French words have final letters that we do
not pronounce. For example, ballet doesn't end with a “T” sound,
and the “X” in Sioux doesn't make a sound, either. Most French
words that end with vowels have no sound associated with those vowels
(think of, for example, the “à
la carte”
menu). But the accent on the word blasé tells us that we DO
pronounce the last letter: blah
– zay.
Here
are some more French words that have to do with emotions:
 |
| Want some joie de vivre? Get out into nature! |
ennui
– boredom or depression
malaise
– another word for a general sense of depression
sombre
– dismal, gloomy (now often spelled “somber”)
esprit
de corps – morale, or feeling of closeness felt by a group
joie
de vivre – the joy of living
rapport
– a feeling of closeness, being “in synch” with someone else
Here
are some French words for a variety of not-so-wonderful things you
might want to avoid:
gaffe
– a mistake
cliché
– an overused phrase or metaphor
hauteur
– arrogance
poseur
– a person who pretends to be something he or she is not (now often
spelled “poser”)
canard
– an untrue rumor
 |
| "Mean Girls" was a cautionary tale about cliques... |
pastiche
– a work that is not original, such as a painting or novel that too
much copies the another artist's piece or another writer's book
sabotage
– destruction of something by an “insider” who wants to weaken
an organization or corporation
clique – a small social group that is unwelcoming to outsiders
Of
course, there are also a ton of French words used in English in the
worlds of dance, food and culinary arts, fashion, fencing, art, and
diplomacy. I don't know about you, but I just cannot be blasé about
all these interesting French words lurking about in our vocabulary!
I
was interested to note that some of our French-words-in-English are
no longer used by French people. (According to Wikipedia, “artiste”
and “à
la mode” are examples.) And apparently
some French-words-in-English were never used by French people, but
only by the French-and-English speaking upper class in England!
(Again according to Wikipedia, “homage” and “negligee” are
examples.)
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