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日頃目に付いた覚えたい英単語、慣用句などの表現についてのメモです。

savoir fair

2021年05月27日 | 英単語
Isabella Birdが温泉宿に泊まった時の記述です。
This is a large yadoya, very full of strangers, and the house-mistress, a buxom and most prepossessing widow, has a truly exquisite hotel for bathers higher up the hill. She has eleven children, two or three of whom are tall, handsome, and graceful girls. One blushed deeply at my evident admiration, but was not displeased, and took me up the hill to see the temples, baths, and yadoyas of this very attractive place. I am much delighted with her grace and savoir faire. I asked the widow how long she had kept the inn, and she proudly answered, “ Three hundred years,” not an uncommon instance of the heredity of occupations.

Isabella Birdはフランス語の表現をよく使うのですが "savoir faire" も外来語(多分フランス語)の様です。英英辞書に載っているでしょうか?  "savoir faire" は見かけませんでしたが、ハイフンを入れた "savoir-faire" の説明はありました。
・Collins English Dictionary: Savoir-faire is the confidence and ability to do the appropriate thing in a social situation.: He was full of jocularity and savoir-faire.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: the ability to do and say the right thing in any social situation: She possesses great savoir-faire.
次の辞書にはニュアンスを含めた説明がありました。
・Vocabulary.com: social skill
Your savoir-faire is your social smoothness. It will serve you well at parties and on the first day at a new school.
As with so many French words that have English cousins, the French version somehow retains an edge of sophistication over its counterpart. The nearest English equivalent of savoir-faire is know-how. But while know-how pertains to nearly all skills, especially practical ones, savoir-faire usually refers specifically to skill in social and diplomatic situations.

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