Purely French
The Figaro. is currently engaged in a; private operation to cut out the words of English origin which have been incorporated into trench. LinguistiOnrgery .never, works. of course t ;if the words are 'useful,:theY'st4V;,if just a fast*, then they will crop' out anyhow. It is trial that the
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Gis brought into the France of 1945 a good many horrors—le chewing gum, la starlet, le pick-up, and nobody would wish to sit in a bar while the café is next door. But the Figaro readers are being asked to offer opinions about such words as parking, camping, bestseller, con- tainer, football. So far, about three-quarters of the answers suggest that French substitutes be found, while a good many offer Gallic spellings instead. Le startaire doesn't seem much of an improvement on a starter, and many of the alternatives are phrases of five or six words, which flatters our English concision.
We could take revenge, I suppose, on hors d'cruvre, h la carte, menu, restaurant—the words speak for themselves. But I like to think that our patriotism is not so devious, and our lan- guage can digest, all foreign dishes.
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