tête-à-tête

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
eberntson
Lexiterian
Posts: 457
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 10:48 am
Location: Cambridge, Mass
Contact:

tête-à-tête

Postby eberntson » Thu Dec 12, 2013 12:10 pm

tête-à-tête

I) A private face-to-face conversation. II). A piece of furniture especially built for two people to have a tête-à-tête conversation.

This is certainly a fun word to say, you can see why we English speakers would appropriate this word. Much more fun than "face-to-face" (circa 1497), and "tête-à-tête" is a younger word by 200 years. The Franco-Anglo cultural exchange is quite wonderful IMHO.

TTFN

E
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: tête-à-tête

Postby Slava » Thu Dec 12, 2013 7:33 pm

Face-to-face and face-time are cold to me. Tête-à-tête has a warm, confab, feeling. Perhaps because it's French? Image

"We had a face-to-face meeting" has a harsher feel to it than "We had a nice tête-à-tête."

Tête-à-tête feels more mutual, face-to-face can come across as confrontational.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

eberntson
Lexiterian
Posts: 457
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 10:48 am
Location: Cambridge, Mass
Contact:

Re: tête-à-tête

Postby eberntson » Sat Jan 18, 2014 3:53 pm

Face-to-face is certain more serious, and if you want it to be confrontational then there is always the face-off.

E
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns


Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 33 guests