The Facts on File Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases (Writers Reference) (23 page)

deja vu (dayzhah voo, dayzhah woo)
FRENCH [already seen] noun phrase the
psychological phenomenon in which a
person has the sense of having experienced something before, even though
to the best of his or her knowledge
they have never actually done so. Also
used of anything that is overly familiar,
hackneyed, or unoriginal: "The whole
show had a distinct air of deja vu, with
hardly an original idea in it."

de jute (dcc juree, day oy oree) LATIN
[from right] adverb phrase by right: "In
all things which regard the external relations of the individual, he is de jure amenable to those whose interests are concerned,
and if need be, to society as their protector"
(John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859).
'adjective phrase legitimate, lawful.

del. See DELINEAVIT.

del credere (del kra dares) ITALIAN [of
belief or trust] adjective phrase (in
law) denoting a selling agent who
receives a high commission for guaranteeing payment by the customers to
the person or company that he or she
represents.

delicatessen (delikatesan) GERMAN
[plural of Delikatesse delicacy] noun a
store or counter in a store selling
ready-to-eat food products: "The new
supermarket boasts an excellent delicatessen,
with a wide range of meat and cheeses."
'abbreviated form deli.

delineavit (delinee4vit) LATIN [he/
she drew it] noun he/she drew it
(identifying the artist of a particular drawing or painting). '"abbreviated
form del.

delirium (dalireeam) LATIN [from delirare to deviate, to leave the furrow]
noun (plural deliriums or deliria,
daliria) a state of mental disturbance or frenzied excitement: "The
patient had passed into a state of delirium
and had become extremely agitated."

delirium tremens (dalireeam tremens)
LATIN [trembling madness] noun violent delirium characterized by uncontrollable trembling, a consequence of
prolonged alcohol abuse: "They that
is, Vronsky had a trainer, an Englishman, first-rate in his own line, but a drunkard. He's completely given up to
drink delirium tremens and the family were cast on the world." (Leo Tolstoy,
Anna Karenina, 1873-77). abbreviated form d.t:s.

delphic (delfik) GREEK [after the Oracle dedicated to Apollo in the ancient
Greek city of Delphi] adjective ambiguous, obscure: "The old man's reply
was positively delphic, leaving us none
the wiser."

delta (delta) GREEK [fourth letter of
the Greek alphabet] noun something
triangular in shape (thus resembling the
triangular symbol for the Greek letter
delta), especially the roughly triangular
area of land enclosed or traversed by
the mounths of a river: Always Florida's
green peninsula always the priceless delta
of Louisiana always the cotton-fields of
Alabama and Texas, Always California's
golden hills and hollows, and the silver
mountains of New Mexico -always softbreath d Cuba..." (Walt Whitman, Leaves
of Grass, 1891-92).

deluxe (diluks, deeluks), de luxe
FRENCH [of luxury] adjective luxurious, elegant, choice, superior or
top quality: "We stayed in a deluxe hotel
in London and were treated like royalty."
'adverb luxuriously, sumptuously.

dementia (dimencha) LATIN [madness, from demens mad] noun (plural
dementias ordementiae, dimensheez)
mental disorder, or a state of fanat

icism, folly, or wildness bordering
on insanity: "It seemed to him that every
conviction, as soon as it became effective,
turned into that form of dementia the
gods send upon those they wish to destroy"
(Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, 1904).

demimondaine (demeemond,
demeemondayn), demi-mondaine
FRENCH [from demi-monde half-world]
noun (plural demimondaines or
demi-mondaines) a woman of the
demimonde, living on the fringes of
respectable society and thus not very
respectable herself.

demimonde (demeemond), demimonde FRENCH [from demi-monde
half-world] noun a class of women
living on the fringes of respectable
society, usually of doubtful reputation
and often maintained by wealthy lovers; also used more loosely of prostitutes in general: "The doctor was a
good-looking man and still young. He had
a superb practice among the gay world,
and being very merry by nature and ready
to laugh and joke in the friendliest way
with the demimonde ladies with whom,
however, he never went farther, he charged
very high fees and got them paid with the
greatest punctuality" (Emile Zola, Nana,
1880).

demi-pension (dami ponsvon, demi
ponsyon) FRENCH [half-board]
noun in French-speaking countries,
a hotel offering bed, breakfast, and
one other meal each day.

demi-sec ((Lami sek, demi sek) FRENCH
[half dry] adjective medium dry (of
wine).

demitasse (demeetas) FRENCH [halfcup] noun a small coffee-cup

demode (daymot) FRENCH [outmoded, past participle of demoder to go
out of fashion] adjective out of date,
outmoded, obsolete, unfashionable.

demoiselle (demwazel) FRENCH
[unmarried woman] noun (plural demoiselles or desmoiselles a young
lady or girl: "The darkness came on fast.
We must camp, of course. I found a good
shelterfor the demoiselle under a rock, and
went off and found another for mysef"
(Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur's Court, 1889).

de mortuis nil nisi bonum (day mortyoois nil neesi bonum) LATIN [about
the dead, nothing except good] noun
phrase do not speak ill of the dead:
"De mortuis nil nisi bonum is an excellent
injunction-even if the dead in question
be nothing but dead small beer." (Edgar
Allan Poe, "Never Bet The Devil Your
Head," 1845). 'abbreviated form de
mortuis.

denim (denim, denam) FRENCH [short
for serge de Nimes, serge of Nimes, a
hardwearing material first made in
Nimes, France] noun durable cotton fabric originally used chiefly for
working clothes, but now in wide use

for work and casual clothing. -adjective relating to a garment made of
such fabric: "The park and streets were
buzzing with strikers, young men in blue
denim shirts, old men with caps." (Sinclair
Lewis, Babbitt, 1922).

de nos jours (day no zhoor) FRENCH
[of our days] adjective phrase of our
time, contemporary: "He is not the first
poet to have been labelled the Lord Byron
de nos jours."

denouement (daynoomon , daynoomon(g)), denouement FRENCH [untying, unraveling, from desnouer to untie]
noun the final outcome or issue of a
plot or situation: "He was not sorry for
the denouement of his visit: he only wished
it had come sooner, and spared him a certain
waste of emotion." (Edith Wharton, The
Age of Innocence, 1920).

de novo (di novo, day novo, dee novo)
LATIN [from new] adverb phrase over
again, afresh, anew: "None of my writings
have been either so carefully composed, or
so sedulously corrected as this. After it had
been written as usual twice over, we kept it
by us, bringing it out from time to time, and
going through it de novo, reading, weighing,
and criticizing every sentence" (John Stuart
Mill, Autobiography, 1873).

deoch an doris See DOCH-AN-DORRIS.

Deo gratias (dayo grahtias, dayo
grahsias) LATIN [thanks to God] inter jection thanks be to God. abbreviated
form D.G.

Deo volente (dayo volentay, deeo
volentee) LATIN [God be willing] adverb
phrase God willing, if God wills.
'abbreviated form D.V.

depasse (daypas) FRENCH [passed]
adjective surpassed, outmoded, outdated, out-of-date. See also PASSE.

depot (deeoo, depo) FRENCH [from
depot deposit, depository, itself from
Latin depositum, neuter past participle of deponere to place, put away]
noun a store, cache, or place where
supplies or vehicles are kept. Also
used to refer to a train or bus station
or other commercial center or base:
"Bill fell asleep on the last bus and woke
up in the depot."

de profundis (day profundis) LATIN
[from the depths, the opening words
of Psalm 130] adverb phrase out of
the depths (usually, of sorrow or
despair).

deracine (dayrasinay) FRENCH [uprooted, past participle of deraciner to
uproot] adjective displaced, dislodged,
uprooted.

de rigueur (d3 reeger) FRENCH [in
strictness] adjective phrase required,
compulsory, obligatory, expected:
"Every one has subjects of conversation,
ladies for instance ... people in high

society always have their subjects of conversation, c'est de rigueur, but people of the
middle sort like us, thinking people that
is, are always tongue-tied and awkward."
(Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment, 1866).

dernier cri (dernyay cree) FRENCH
[last cry] noun phrase the latest fashion, the last word in fashion, style or
design: "They wore dresses and skirts that
they were told were the dernier cri."

derriere (dereeair), derriere FRENCH
[back part, behind] noun (slang) the
buttocks, behind, rear, posterior: "He
aimed a kick at his tormentor's derriere but thought better of it at the last
moment."

dervish (dervish) TURKISH [beggar,
from Persian darvish religious mendicant] noun a member of one of several ascetic Muslim religious orders
bound by vows of poverty and austerity; usually associated with religious
fanatics who dance feverishly and
whirl about as part of their religious
devotions: "It befell one day of the days
that as he was sitting about the quarter
at play with the vagabond boys, behold, a
dervish from the Maghrib, the Land of the
Setting Sun, came up and stood gazing for
solace upon the lads" (Richard Burton,
"Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp,"
Arabian Nights, 1885-88).

desaparecido (desaparaseedo) SPANISH [disappeared one] noun (plural desaparecidos) the disappeared (usually referring to the thousands of
Argentine citizens who vanished,
allegedly on the orders of the country's authoritarian military rulers,
during the 1970s and early 1980s).

descanso (deskanso) SPANISH [resting
place, from descansar to rest] noun a
roadside memorial to mark the site of
an automobile accident.

deshabille (dayzabeel, dayzabil), dishabille (disabcel, disabil), deshabille
(dayza)ccyay) FRENCH [undressed,
past participle of deshabiller to undress]
noun casual dress, or a state of partial undress. "Madame Hohlakov had
been slightly ailing for the last three
weeks: her foot had for some reason swollen up, and though she was not in bed, she
lay all day ha !f reclining on the couch in
her boudoir, in a fascinating but decorous
deshabille." (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The
Brothers Karamazov, 1880).

desideratum (disidarahtam, dizidarahtam) LATIN [neuter of desideratus,
past participle of desiderare to desire]
noun (plural desiderata, disidarahta,
dizidarahta) a requirement, or something needed or desired as essential:
"The thing that will logically extinguish
him is perhaps still a desideratum in Constitutional civilization "(Thomas Carlyle,
The French Revolution, 1837).

De Stijl ((1a stil) DUTCH [the style
(the name of the group's magazine)]

noun phrase an artistic movement
that originated in the Netherlands in
the 1920s, characterized by the use of
rectangular shapes and primary colors
plus black and white.

detente (daytont, detont, daytahnt),
detente FRENCH [relaxation, casing]
noun (plural detentes) a period of
relaxation in tension, usually referring
to political relations between opposed
nations (and the policies connected
with this): 'An uneasy detente existed
between the management and the rebellious workforce as the two sides considered
their future strategies."

detour (deetoor, ditoor) FRENCH
[detour turning away, from detorner
to divert, turn away] noun a deviation from the direct or normal
course or route. -verb to make such
a deviation from the direct or normal course or route: "`Yes, that's to be
taken for granted,' retorted the celebrated
doctor, again glancing at his watch. `Beg
pardon but is the Iauzsky bridge finished yet, or must one still make a
detour?' he asked" (Leo Tolstoy, Anna
Karenina, 1874-76).

detritus (ditritas) LATIN [rubbing
away, from the past participle of Latin
deterere to wear away] noun (plural
detritus) debris, remnants, particles, rubbish as in "the emotional
detritus of a failed marriage."Also used
in geology to describe sand, gravel,
and rocks produced by erosion: "The geologists examined vast mounds of detritus across the valley."

de trop (dg tro) FRENCH [of too much]
adjective phrase superfluous, too
much, excessive, unwelcome: Julia
felt uncomfortable she felt herself to be
de trop; and making an incoherent excuse,
she had scarcely taken a seat on a sofa,
before she arose, left the room, and ran up
stairs again." (James Fenimore Cooper,
Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief,
1843).

deus ex machina (dayas eks making,
dayas eks masheeng) LATIN [a god
out of a machine] noun phrase (plural
dei ex machina, dayee eks making,
dayee eks masheeng) an artificial
ending or convenient but contrived
solution to a difficulty (referring to
the traditional appearance in classical
drama of a god, lowered on an artificial cloud, toward the end of a play
to resolve the action on the stage):
"It is the dens ex machina who, by suspending that resistance, makes the fall of
the curtain an immediate necessity, since
drama ends exactly where resistance ends."
(George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren's
Profession, 1898).

Deus vobiscum (dayas vobiskgm)
LATIN [God with you] noun phrase
may God be with you: "Nay, then,
if wilful will to water, wilful must
drench. Deus vobiscum, most doughty
Athelstane!' he concluded, loosening the
hold which he had hitherto kept upon the Saxon's tunic." (Walter Scott, Ivanhoe,
1819).

deva (d vg) SANSKRIT [a god, a shining one] noun in Hindu, Buddhist
and Vedic mythology, a god or divine
spirit.

devore (dgvoray) FRENCH [devoured]
noun a velvet or satin fabric with
a raised pattern etched with acid.
'adjective denoting such a fabric: "The
princess wore a midnight-blue evening
gown in devore velvet."