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App helps you find the mot juste
A BID to cut the use of anglicisms has seen the Culture Ministry create an app to help people find an ‘approved’ French term.
So, dépliant, imprimé, feuillet or even papillon instead of flyer and replacing binge drinking with beuverie expresse or mentor for coach.
Using data from the website FranceTerme the app gives recommendations on words which government culture experts have pronounced on and published
about in Le Journal Officiel. No one is legally obliged to use them, but public sector workers are requested to do so. Among the most widely-used is courriel, which is recommended (first listed in 2003) instead of email. It comes from courrier électronique.
However, some others failed to catch on as France Terme formerly advised bloc-notes (literally, notepad), instead of blog, but this is now un blogue.
Other IT terms include mot dièse instead of hashtag (dièse is a ‘sharp’ sign in music) and cheval de Troie instead of Trojan (a kind of computer virus).