LE GENTLEMAN

Southland Times, Issue 18933, 21 September 1920, Page 6

LE GENTLEMAN

ENGLISH WORD OFFICIALLY ADOPTED IN FRENCH.

The French Academy has decided to admit tin- word “gentleman'’ to the official dictionary of I ranee, of which it is compiling a fresh edition (says a Reuter message from Paris). •■Gentleman” is frequently used in French modern writing and conversation rather than “gentilhomme,” which ordinarily means nobleman, hut in the new edition of the dictionary is to mean “a man who, without being noble by race, has lofty sentiments, elegant manners and docs noble

■■Gentleman,” on the other hand, is to be described in the dictionary as “an English word, sometimes employed in French in the metaphorical and moral sense of the word gent ilhomme.” The French Academy has been at work on a new edition of its dictionary since about ISSO, and only the first seven letters of the alphabet have been dealt with. It was in 1633 (hat Richelieu first asked the Academy, which consists (or is intended to consist I of the 40 most eminent literary men of the time, to draw up a dictionary '•which should bring the French language to its highest and show the way to the best form of eloquence.” The first edition appeared in ICB4 ; the last, in which there were about 2200 new words, saw publication in 1877.

The Academy is the ultimate arbiter of what is a French word, and no new word is considered available for literary use until it has accepted it.