Learn English – Are there any “fake” French words used in English

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Are there any "fake" French words used in English? By "fake French" I mean words that are of French origin but are not actually correct French. This could happen if the word changes as it becomes adopted by English speakers. "Fake" may not be the best term for this — if anyone can think of something better, please let me know. I mean French-derived terms that have evolved to the point of no longer being common-usage French.

Some examples of the reverse, i.e. "fake English" words used in French:

  • relooking, which means makeover — this is derived from the English word "look" but "relooking" is not used by English speakers
  • happy end — minor difference, but in the US at least we say "happy ending" and not "happy end"
  • brushing — blow-drying your hair is called "un brushing", clearly derived from English, but if you announce "I'm going to get a brushing today" nobody will understand you
  • afterwork — I'm not certain here, but I think "an afterwork" is extremely rare in English. In French, however, "un afterwork" is common and refers to meeting up after work, e.g. at a bar
  • smoking — in French, "un smoking" is a fancy dinner jacket, which comes from the English "smoking jacket" — but you can't say "I'm going to wear a smoking tonight" in English, at least not in the US
  • Inspired by Dan's comment: footing means a jog; you can't say "I'm going on a footing" in English, and the French wiktionary article explicitly states that this is a "faux anglicisme"
  • Found after following links on wiktionary: un lifting means a facelift; it's another English-derived French word that was never actually used by English speakers

The word "fake" in my title might be confusing — I'm not looking for words that are pronounced with fake French accents, but rather for French-derived words that have evolved to the point of no longer being common-usage French (or that were never used in French to begin with, the way the French word footing was never used in English).


This question was closed for being too broad; this edit is an attempt to narrow it down.

I'm looking specifically for words that (a) are used in English; (b) are derived from French; but (c) would not make sense to a French speaker, either because the word was never used in French in the first place, or because the French and English versions of the word have drifted extremely far apart.

An example of the reverse is "un footing" in French: "a footing" is complete nonsense in English, and it would be hard to even guess what it means.

Some examples of words that aren't what I'm looking for:

  • The US usage of entrée doesn't really satisfy criterion (c) above: sure, the meanings have diverged a little bit, but barely.
  • Same comment as above for the US usage of petite — it's still understandable to a French speaker.

I'm particularly interested in French-derived words that were never used in French, the way "footing" and "relooking" were never used in English.

Best Answer

Yes, there's even two sections for different types of these in the Wikipedia article about French phrases used in English ("List of French expressions in English"):

I remember reading before that nom de plume is not idiomatic in French, where instead they use nom de guerre. However, it appears that nom de plume now exists in French as well (thanks to Basj for the correction), possibly due to influence from the English term.

Another funny one I vaguely remembered reading about is giclée, a neologism coined to make art printed using an inkjet printer sound fancier, but that has unfortunate connotations of ejaculation in French (it literally refers to a "spurt" or "squirt").

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