Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A French phrase or idiom appearing in another language.
  • noun A characteristic French trait.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A form or style of speech peculiar to the French language; the use by an English or other foreign writer or speaker of a form or expression, as a particular sense of a word or manner of phraseology, peculiar to the French language.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A mode of speech peculiar to the French; a French idiom; also, in general, a French mode or custom.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative capitalization of gallicism

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a word or phrase borrowed from French

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Gallicism.

Examples

  • On the other hand, in The King's English, orient is criticised as a 'Gallicism'.

    On being orient(at)ed DC 2010

  • On the other hand, in The King's English, orient is criticised as a 'Gallicism'.

    Archive 2010-04-01 DC 2010

  • We also tossed the narcissistic Gallicism “memoir,” which we decided was a linguistic mongrel of “me” and “moi.”

    Last Words George Carlin 2009

  • ‘Resume’ must be a Gallicism meaning ‘summarize’ — think ‘resume’ (three syllable) meaning ‘summary (of qualifications)’.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » What Bulgarians Think of Us: 2007

  • In one of these trimly built cars was a party of four young men whose spirits seemed to be at present well above the level of successful Gallicism: in fact, these four young men were almost hilarious.

    Dubliners 2003

  • “Another forfeit for a Gallicism,” said a Russian writer who was present.

    War and Peace 2003

  • Brushing aside the Gallicism of his formal dip at her hand,

    Tender is the Night 2003

  • Though her English is fluent, I assumed this somewhat peculiar phrase was a Gallicism, and I merely nodded solemnly in agreement.

    Winners Banville, John 1991

  • English he seemed to write as readily as French, although a strong Gallicism would every now and then slip from his pen, as it slipped from his tongue.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 50, December, 1861 Various

  • I shall not discuss the cause of this change in the use of the possessive, though it seems to me an evident Gallicism, nor shall I open the question of whether it is a mere passing fad or the beginning of an actual alteration in the language.

    A Librarian's Open Shelf Arthur E. Bostwick

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.