Faux Pas
A No-nonsense Guide to Words and Phrases from Other Languages
Published on 17. October 2005
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-7475-8019-5 (ISBN)
Description
Have you ever been taken aback by the chutzpah of some people who dot their conversation with foreign words and phrases? Meeting someone like this, especially if they are a honcho, can result in a mauvais quart d'heure for you - but it's fun to consider whether they are indeed multi-lingual and multi-talented, or whether there is another reason for the floweriness of their language...viz uber-pretentious, ersatz sophistication? Thousands of foreign words and phrases have been absorbed into the language and are currently used in English, from the everyday (macho, tete-a-tete, spaghetti) to the relatively obscure (ultra vires, auto-da-fe). Le mot juste focuses on familiar terms and expressions as well as those that are new, curious or amusing. Each expression is 'translated', with an indication of its language of origin and pronunciation, a comment on its usefulness and occasionally a Pretentiousness Index. All terms are illustrated with examples drawn from daily contexts ranging from newspapers and advertisements to TV and radio.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Who's Whose?: 'That fairly rare thing - a genuinely useful reference book that deserves a handy place on the desk of everyone who wants to use the right word for the job.' Ian Mayes, Guardian 'Genuinely useful for writers - and their critics. It is well illustrated with examples of right and wrong uses ... a soundly practical book' Ian Mayes, Guardian 'A useful handbook to the booby traps that lie in wait for us all' Independent on SundayMore details
Person
Philip Gooden read English at Magdalen College, Oxford, and then taught at secondary level for many years. In 2001 he became a full-time writer. Recently published is Who's Whose?: A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily Confused Words (Bloomsbury, 2004). He is also the author of the Nick Revill series, a sequence of historical mysteries based in Elizabethan London and set around Shakespeare's Globe theatre. Titles so far published are Sleep of Death, Death of Kings, The Pale Companion (shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in 2002), Alms for Oblivion and Mask of Night. A contributor to various short story anthologies, Philip Gooden also works as an editor, most recently on the Mammoth Book of Literary Anecdotes and a new edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World for Penguin Classics. He lives in Bath where he is currently working on his next novel, An Honourable Murderer.