Brewer's: English French

A kind of perversity seems to pervade many of the words which we have borrowed from the French. Thus curate (French vicaire); Vicar (French curé).

Encore (French bis).

Epergne (French surtout); Surtout (French pardessus). Screw (French vis), whereas the French écrou we call a nut; and our vice is étau in French. Some still say à l'outrance (French à outrance).

We say double entendre, the French à deux ententes.

The reader will easily call to mind other examples.

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