Amour Propre and Au Courant
Pardon My French
Extra Muros continues the serialization of Pardon My French, a light-hearted look at some of the French expressions that have taken up residence in the Anglosphere.
If you wish to mention self-esteem, but don’t want people to know that you got your ideas on the subject from Psychology Today, you can replace the offending expression with amour propre. “I wanted to take Digby to task for confusing Jacques Chirac with Gérard Depardieu, but I did not wish to wound his amour propre.”
This little expression has nothing to do with fast-flowing rivers, electricity or little red raisins. Rather, it is a way of saying “aware of the most recent trends” without resorting to such passé expressions as “with it,” “gnarly,” and “hip.” “Digby is far from au courant with either French cinema or French politics. That’s why he can’t tell the difference between Jacques Chirac and Gérard Depardieu.”
The links appended to the titles will take you to Google Translate, where you will find an icon similar to the one used with many volume controls. When you click that button, an authentically French robot will pronounce the word or phrase in question.
Je t' aime the woman picking her teeth in the mirror while the gentlemen discourse. Or is she putting on lipstick? (The use of French is another way of announcing you are smart. But of course, French is au courant, Latin is passé. Smile.)