Foreign Expressions
3 min readAug 24, 2021
- De facto — in reality
- Status Quo — current state
- Per se — by itself
- Cul de sac — street closed at one end
- Ad hoc — made something for a particular purpose
- Bonafide — genuine
- Bon appetit — good appetite; I hope you enjoy your food
- Bon voyage — used to express good wishes to someone about to set off on a journey.
- Ad nauseam — saying again and again until it becomes boring and annoying
- Carte blanche — complete freedom
- Caveat emptor — let the buyer beware
- En masse — all together; in a group
- Fait Accompli — an accomplished fact; that cannot be changed
- Faux pas — socially embarrassing remark; a false step
- Ipso facto — by the fact itself
- Modus operandi — mode of operating
- Persona non grata — unacceptable or unwelcome person
- Prima donna — a very temperamental person with an inflated view of their own talent or importance; who shows they are very important; Normal person demanding to be treated specially; chief female singer
- Pro Bono — something done for free
- Quid pro quo — a favour or advantage granted in return for something.
- Ab initio — from the beginning
- Alma mater — where the person studied
- Alibi — excuse; I was somewhere else at the time of the crime.
- Alter ego — Alternative personality
- Alpha and omega — the beginning and the end of something; most important feature
- Alias — a false name
- Ad infinitum — without ending
- Bon homie — cheerfulness
- Apropos — right thing; appropriate.
- Bourgeois/proletarian — the middle-class people
- Bete noire — something that is strongly disliked or avoided.
- Communique — An official statement
- Coiffeur — hairdresser/barber
- Cuisine — the style of cooking of a particular country, restaurant, etc.
- Detour — a longer route from one place to another that you take to avoid something/somebody or to see or do something.
- Deja vu — the strange feeling that you have experienced what is happening now before
- De jure — by right/legal
- Denouement — an outcome of something; an act of untying
- En-bloc — all together or all at the same time.
- Ex gratia — given or done as a gift or favour, not because there is a legal duty to do it
- Gratis — free of cost
- Leitmotif — something recurring again and again in the art, to tell that this is very important,
- Mutatis mutandis — making corrections without changing the main point.
- Potpourri — a mixture
- Sobriquet — a person’s nickname
- Vendetta — ख़ानदानी झगड़ा; कुल वैर
- A la carte — food ordered separately
- Amour propre — self-love, self-respect
- Cras — tomorrow
- Acme — at its highest point
- Anorexia — an illness, especially affecting young women. It makes them afraid of being fat and so they do not eat
- Cerise — light red colour
- Chic — fashionable
- Coup de grace — end of a person; a final blow of something
- Creme de la creme — the best person or a thing of a particular kind
- De riguer —prescribed etiquettes in the fashion industry
- Debutante — women entering into the fashion industry
- Aficionado — an ardent devotee
- Angst — anxiety
- Annus mirabilis — a wonderful year
- A priori — based on theory rather than observation
- Au courant — up to date
- Carpe diem — seize the day
- Cause celebre — a widely known controversial case or issue
- Comme ci, comme ça — so-so; neither good nor bad
- Comme il faut — correct in behaviour or etiquette
- Cri de coeur — a passionate appeal; protest
- Dolce vita — a life of heedless pleasure and luxury.
- Entre nous — between ourselves
- Glasnost — an open discussion
- Hoi polloi — common people
- Je ne sais quoi — a quality that cannot be described or named easily.
- Mea culpa — I am to blame
- Mot juste — an appropriate word
- Nota bene — take notice
- Sans Souci — carefree
- Schadenfreude — pleasure at someone else’s misfortunes
- Sine qua non — an essential condition
- Sui generis — unique
- Tout le monde — every one of importance
- Alfresco — in an open-air
- Compos mentis — in full control of one’s mind
- inter alia — among other things
- Vis-a vis — in relation to
