façon de parler

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French façon de parler.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: făsôɴ də păʀlé, IPA^(key): /fasɔ̃ də paɹle/

Noun

façon de parler (plural façons de parler)

1. A turn of phrase or rhetorical formula, especially one that ought not to be taken literally, but rather as employed for convenience of expression only.
   • 1999: Simon Blackburn, Think: A compelling introduction to philosophy, chapter 7: The World, section 6: Kant’s Revolution, pages 258–259 (Oxford University Press, paperback, →ISBN

     This might all seem grist to Berkeley’s mill. Berkeley himself knew that we interpret our experience in spatio-temporal, objective terms. But he thought we had to ‘speak with the vulgar but think with the learned’: in other words, learn to regard that interpretation as a kind of façon de parler, rather than the description of a real, independent, objective world.

See also

• after a fashion
• figure of speech
• in a manner of speaking

 

References

• “‖façon de parler” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]

French

Etymology

Literally, “way of speaking”, “manner of speech”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa.sɔ̃ d(ə) paʁ.le/

Noun

façon de parler f (plural façons de parler)

1. façon de parler

   Synonym: manière de parler

   Désolé si je t’ai vexé, c’était juste une façon de parler.

   Sorry for having annoyed you, it was a façon de parler.

Phrase

façon de parler

1. (informal) so to speak, in a manner of speaking, if one can call it that, if one can put it that way

See also

• façon de dire