• tete-a-tete •
Pronunciation: tet-ê-tet • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A private conversation between two people. 2. A vis-à-vis, loveseat, a small S-shaped couch seating two people so that they may face each other.
Notes: 
You may put hats on all the words in this French compound if you wish and spell it tête-à-tête. Remember the silent Es. This word is a lexical orphan, but it may be used as an adjective and adverb as is.
In Play: Tete-a-tetes can bring good news of bad: "Let's have lunch tomorrow and a tete-a-tete about you salary." What may be a good tete-a-tete for one person, may be bad for another: "Marigold Gardiner saw her husband in a restaurant having a tete-a-tete with his secretary."
Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed from French so recently, some people keep the French diacritical markings. In French, tête-à-tête means "head-to-head". The circumflex marks all vowels after which an S in Old French has been removed. Tête comes from Old French teste, descendant of Latin testa "earthen pot, shell", whose meaning became by Late Latin "skull". Latin made its word from PIE teks-/toks- "to weave, to make", source also of Sanskrit taksati "fashions, makes", Latin texere "to weave, make", Greek tekton "carpenter", Russian tkat' "to weave", Serbian tkati "to weave", Lithuanian tašyti "to rough hew, trim", German Dach "roof" and Dachs "badger", and Irish tuaigh "to chop".
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