façon de parlern.
/faˌsɒn də pɑːˈleɪ/ A way or manner of speaking; a mere phrase or formula.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > [noun] > mode of expression > turn of phrase
express1644
expression1646
turn1685
tour1686
façon de parler1804
tournure1815
rephrasing1881
1804 W. Wilberforce Let. 29 Sept. in J. Aitken Eng. Lett. XIX Cent. (1946) 28 B.'s first letter would convey the idea of his having had in his mind from the very first the..plan..but I believe that is only a façon de parler.
1806 Edinb. Rev. Jan. 494 Philostratus..introduces the high priest of Serapis saying, (in the time of Vitellius) ‘and who can alter the sacred institutions of Egypt?’ Was this a mere façon de parler?
1813 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1838) X. 161 I hope that this mode of considering an omission which can easily be rectified, is only a façon de parler.
1886 H. G. Hutchinson Hints on Golf 56 A mere golfing façon de parler.
1887 S. H. Hodgson Let. 8 Apr. in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. James (1935) I. 642 What is ‘the mind’?.. I suspect it is a mere façon de parler..which has a basis neither in psychological construction nor in philosophical analysis.
1907 W. De Morgan Alice-for-Short xlii. 439 Which was palpably a lie, taken literally; but was a façon-de-parler that passed muster, taken leniently.
1953 C. E. Bazell Ling. Form i. 8 It is clearly a mere façon de parler when sang is split up into the segments i) sing and ii) i>a.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2018).
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n.1804