Foreign Words Flashcards
Ad hoc
For a definite purpose
A priori
Based on deduction, not fact
Ad nauseum
Continuing to a disgusting degree
Alfresco
Outdoors
Bête noire
Something disliked
Carte blanche
Blank check or freedom
Casus belli
Justification for war
Caveat emptor
Buyer beware
Comme il faut
Like it should be
Corpus delicti
Evidence of a crime
Coup de grace
A deathblow
De facto
Actual reality
De jure
Truth by technicality
Deus ex machina
Implausible answer to a problem
Ex cathedra
Absolute authority
Fait accompli
Completed deed
Faux pas
Mistakes made socially
Idee fixe
An idea one obsesses on
In extremis
Near death
In loco parentis
Acting in a parent’s stead
In vino veritas
Truth is found in wine
Ipso facto
In and of itself
Joie de vivre
Joy of living
Modus operandi
Way of working
Noblesse oblige
The way nobility must behave
Nolo contendere
No contest
Nom de plume
Pen name
Non sequitur
Doesn’t follow logically
Per se
By or in itself
Persona non grata
Someone disliked
Prima facie
At first look
Pro forma
Done as a formality
Quid pro quo
An exchange
Raison d’être
Reason for being
Rara avis
Rare example
Sangfroid
Cool under pressure
Schadenfreude
Satisfaction from another’s misery
Sine qua non
Very important
Sui generis
Unique
Tete-a-tete
A private conversation
Verboten
Forbidden
Vis-a-vis
In relation to
Weltschmerz
Sadness because of the world’s evils
Zeitgeist
Popular opinion of the time