expressif

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛk.spʁɛ.sif/ ~ /ɛk.spʁe.sif/

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -if
• Homophone: expressifs

Adjective

expressif (feminine expressive, masculine plural expressifs, feminine plural expressives)

1. expressive
   • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche‎^{fr.Wikisource}, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Volume I, Chapter I:

     Lui cherchant alors un nom qui ne s’écartât pas trop du sien, qui sentît et représentât la grande dame et la princesse, il vint à l’appeler Dulcinée du Toboso, parce qu’elle était native de ce village : nom harmonieux à son avis, rare et distingué, et non moins expressif que tous ceux qu’il avait donnés à son équipage et à lui-même.

     Through searching himself thus for a name that did not diverge too much from his own, that would suit and represent the great lady and princess, he came to call her Dulcinea del Toboso, because she was a native of this village [Toboso]: a name in his opinion harmonious, rare and distinguished, and no less expressive than all the ones that he had given to his team and to himself.

Related terms

• expression
• exprimer

Further reading

• “expressif”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.