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Do they also ask for the meaning of entree in this test? Even Miriam Webster has a note that Americans mistakenly use it for main course (completely incorrectl

Do they also ask for the meaning of entree in this test? Even Miriam Webster has a note that Americans mistakenly use it for main course (completely incorrectly) because French sounds fancier. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entr%C3%A9e#:~:text=As%20dining%20habits%20have%20changed,anything%20French%20always%20sounds%20elegant. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entr%C3%A9e#:~:te...

LudwigNagasena 2y ago
Semantic drift is not "incorrect".
- karaterobot 2y ago
  At first it's a mistake, then eventually it's not.
Clamchop 2y ago
English has borrowed French words a lot. It has often imported the same word multiple times, and they frequently have different meanings. Including entrée, incidentally, which gave us the entrée and the entry. Even in France, in the context of elaborate multiple course meals, the entrée eventually stopped being the very first thing that was served. Soup started to take that spot, and gave us what we now call the appetizer, which used to be chiefly soup or salad but now could be almost anything. For those elaborate meals, the entrée was just the first course of the multiple courses that were the "main" dish. Separate main courses have largely fallen out of fashion, and they collapsed into one plate with a serving of each. This is still the entrée in the US and Canada, and that makes perfect sense, given the history. So no, it wasn't just that it sounded fancier.
kgwgk 2y ago
> completely incorrectly That meaning is also accepted by the French Academy nowadays: Fig. En parlant d’une période de temps, d’un processus. Commencement, début. À l’entrée de l’hiver. Dès l’entrée du repas. Par métonymie. Mets qui vient après les hors-d’œuvre et précède le plat principal. Une entrée chaude, froide. Servir un vol-au-vent, un soufflé en entrée. Par extension. Plat principal. Un repas composé d’un hors-d’œuvre, une entrée et un dessert. https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A7E1159 https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A7E1159
- psini 2y ago
  I don't know your french level but perhaps you read your quote too fast because it says: "Mets qui vient après les hors-d'œuvre et AVANT le plat principal". So the "entrée" is the dish that comes BEFORE the main dish.
  - CRConrad 2y ago
    Perhaps you read GP's quote too fast? Because it ends with: >>>> Par extension. Plat principal. Un repas composé d’un hors-d’œuvre, une entrée et un dessert. "By extension. Main dish. A meal consisting of an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert." There the "entrée" is clearly the "main dish".
    - psini 2y ago
      Mea culpa, I did go over it. I guess as a native speaker the idea of calling a "Plat Principal" an "Entrée" is just so foreign to me I just cannot accept it... :-) Perhaps it is a regional difference
plaguuuuuu 2y ago
I had no idea it was used for main course in the US, that's wild. This would be very, very confusing for Australians (probably Brits as well)

LudwigNagasena 2y ago

Semantic drift is not "incorrect".

karaterobot 2y ago
At first it's a mistake, then eventually it's not.

Clamchop 2y ago

English has borrowed French words a lot. It has often imported the same word multiple times, and they frequently have different meanings. Including entrée, incidentally, which gave us the entrée and the entry. Even in France, in the context of elaborate multiple course meals, the entrée eventually stopped being the very first thing that was served. Soup started to take that spot, and gave us what we now call the appetizer, which used to be chiefly soup or salad but now could be almost anything. For those elaborate meals, the entrée was just the first course of the multiple courses that were the "main" dish. Separate main courses have largely fallen out of fashion, and they collapsed into one plate with a serving of each. This is still the entrée in the US and Canada, and that makes perfect sense, given the history. So no, it wasn't just that it sounded fancier.

kgwgk 2y ago

> completely incorrectly That meaning is also accepted by the French Academy nowadays: Fig. En parlant d’une période de temps, d’un processus. Commencement, début. À l’entrée de l’hiver. Dès l’entrée du repas. Par métonymie. Mets qui vient après les hors-d’œuvre et précède le plat principal. Une entrée chaude, froide. Servir un vol-au-vent, un soufflé en entrée. Par extension. Plat principal. Un repas composé d’un hors-d’œuvre, une entrée et un dessert. https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A7E1159 https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A7E1159

psini 2y ago
I don't know your french level but perhaps you read your quote too fast because it says: "Mets qui vient après les hors-d'œuvre et AVANT le plat principal". So the "entrée" is the dish that comes BEFORE the main dish.
- CRConrad 2y ago
  Perhaps you read GP's quote too fast? Because it ends with: >>>> Par extension. Plat principal. Un repas composé d’un hors-d’œuvre, une entrée et un dessert. "By extension. Main dish. A meal consisting of an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert." There the "entrée" is clearly the "main dish".
  - psini 2y ago
    Mea culpa, I did go over it. I guess as a native speaker the idea of calling a "Plat Principal" an "Entrée" is just so foreign to me I just cannot accept it... :-) Perhaps it is a regional difference

plaguuuuuu 2y ago

I had no idea it was used for main course in the US, that's wild. This would be very, very confusing for Australians (probably Brits as well)