Finding Faute
Pardon My French
Extra Muros continues the serialization of Pardon My French, a light-hearted look at some of the French expressions that sometimes pop up in the speech of Anglophones.
In French, faute does double duty. Sometimes, it describes a defect. In other instances, it indicates an absence.
English-speakers, however, limit their use of the continental cousin of ‘fault’ to the phrase faute de mieux. Literally translated as ‘for lack of something better’, this little expression - what might be called a ‘faute line’ - comes in handy whenever we find ourselves settling for second best.
Folk fond of irony - my fellow Americans may safely skip this sentence - also use faute de mieux to describe situations in which circumstances constrain them to do what they wanted to do all along.
With those things in mind, I offer some examples:1
Petunia married Digby because she feared that no one else would ask her. Thus, he was less her ‘Mister Right’ than her ‘Monsieur Faute de Mieux’.2
All of the restaurants had closed. So, faute de mieux, Mrs. Muros and I dined on a can of Vienna sausages that we bought at the Dollar Store.3
The wine store ran out of Boone’s Farm. As a result, we were obliged, faute de mieux, to drink champagne.
For more in the way of Gallic mirth:
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Neither Petunia nor Digby live in the real world. Any resemblance between them and actual people, whether past, present, or yet to be, is entirely coincidental.
I am delighted to report that, while this anecdote belongs to the same realm as Petunia and Digby, Mrs. Muros dwells among us, and, better yet, often keeps company with Mr. Muros.
The cartoon comes from Pictures from Punch (London: Bradbury, Agnew, and Company, 1904) volume 3, page 340
Personally, I never need an excuse to drink champagne 🥂