Sans (without) anybody use this word?

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
for some reason my co-worker started using this word in speech and in email and i find it annoying and silly. just curious anybody else use this word to sound cool?
 

brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,634
6,015
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i use it every few weeks, not counting when i talk about sans serif fonts

it's kind of a fun word
 

Carson Dyle

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2012
8,173
524
126
No, but it's never struck me as pretentious, either.

I do notice, though, that more and more people today talk as though they never got past 5th grade, and then they seem genuinely put off when someone uses a word they don't understand.
 

zCypher

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2002
6,115
171
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It is a French word. I live in Montréal, Québec and am bilingual surrounded by bilingual and multilingual people and I never hear English-speaking people using "sans" like that. haha.
 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
4,092
136
It is a French word. I live in Montréal, Québec and am bilingual surrounded by bilingual and multilingual people and I never hear English-speaking people using "sans" like that. haha.
It's also a middle English word (and in that case pronounced "sanz."). I use it without rarity, perhaps because I also speak Spanish with some regularity and have also gotten used to using "sin."

I'll pronounce it with either the French or English pronunciation depending on context.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,663
13,834
126
www.anyf.ca
Only if I'm speaking in French. Would be weird to use it while speaking English. Then again when speaking in French we tend to use lot of English words too so guess it's same idea.

Though I find some people use French words just to try to sound all fancy.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,122
1,594
126
I encourage people to erxpand their vocabulary. Just the other day, I had to explain to a couple youts what a waif was.
 

brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,634
6,015
136
I do notice, though, that more and more people today talk as though they never got past 5th grade, and then they seem genuinely put off when someone uses a word they don't understand.

i've also noticed that they try to compensate for this lack of vocabulary in other ways, such as buying luxury vehicles
 

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
18,828
184
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Only if I'm speaking in French. Would be weird to use it while speaking English. Then again when speaking in French we tend to use lot of English words too so guess it's same idea.

Though I find some people use French words just to try to sound all fancy.

Do you speak Arcadian French or Franglish?
 

zCypher

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2002
6,115
171
116
It's also a middle English word (and in that case pronounced "sanz."). I use it without rarity, perhaps because I also speak Spanish with some regularity and have also gotten used to using "sin."

I'll pronounce it with either the French or English pronunciation depending on context.
Interesting perspective. Sans sarcasm!
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
I use it occasionally, but only when it is contextually appropriate. Anyone using it regularly enough for me to take note of it I would think is a bit pretentious.
 

brianmanahan

Lifer
Sep 2, 2006
24,634
6,015
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lol! That is far from being true, but quebec probably does have the largest concentration of french speaking canadians.

it always seemed less efficient to have 2 official languages

so many translations!

im like %75 german but everyone stopped speaking german within one generation of coming to the US. didn't teach it to the kids.