2021-04-17 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – à la

2021-04-17

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – à la

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Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง à la = ‘AH-luh’ or ‘AH-lah’

SLANG DICTIONARY

à la

or a la or ala [ah lah, ah luh]

WHAT DOES À LA MEAN?

Borrowed from French,

à la means "according to" or "in the manner of,"

e.g., everyday, observational humor à la Jerry Seinfeld

(as Jerry Seinfeld would make jokes).

In cooking, à la refers to a way of preparing a dish,

e.g., chicken à la provençale (as traditionally cooked in Provence).

WHERE DOES À LA COME FROM?

The prepositional phrase à la comes from French,

where it means

“according to the,”

“in the manner of the,” or

“to the.”

What follows “the”

(la; à variously means “to, at, in, etc.”)

in French is a feminine noun or adjective.

For instance,

tarte à la rhubarbe is“rhubarb pie”

while the 2019 film L’Adieu à la nuit is“Goodbye to the Night.”

À la was recorded in English by the late 16th century.

It appearsin a few common phrases English

also borrowed fromFrench:

à la mode, used in English

to mean “in the current fashion, fashionable.”

Pie à la mode is pie (or other desserts) topped with ice cream,

once a fancy trend to describe such desserts starting in the late 1800s.

Another culinary à la appearsin à la carte

(French, = “according to the menu”),

referring to ordering items on a menuseparately

and at their own price

(i.e., you don’t have to order a fixed meal, butjust the foods you want).

À la carte can be now used figuratively

to describe someone who picks some things out of a larger set,

e.g., an à la carte Catholic

who (conveniently) believes

in some aspects of the religion, but not others.

À la carte television

refers to customers paying for just channelsthey want,

rather they having to pay for a whole (cable) service.

WHO USES À LA?

In English,

à la has become an usefulshorthand to indicate

something(art, music, writing, etc.) is done in a manner

or style similar to something else.

In this way,

à la is not unlike e.g., (“for example”)

or like/as in.

What follows à la is oftenan artist, public figure, or cultural product,

e.g., a nostalgic teen sci-fi drama à la Stranger Things.

As noted,

you’ll also encounter à la in culinary contexts,

naming specific dishes or styles of preparation.

One is chicken à la king,

supposedlynamed for E. Clark King, a New York hotel owner.

Some people may apply à la in their own cooking for an ironic flourish.

Because English users

don’t knowor don’t want to use (especially online)

French accent markings,

à la often gets spelled just a la or even as ala

(or wrongly marked as á la, a’ la),

which can make it easily confusedwith an abbreviation for,

say, Alabama (Ala.) or

organization names, such as the American Library Association (ALA).

Some writers may put à la in italics

to show it is a foreign phrase,

but it has become familiar in English

that it necessarily doesn’t require italics.

NOTE

This is not meant to be a formal definition

of à la like most terms we define on Dictionary.com,

but is ratheran informal word summary

that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning

and usage of à la that will help our users expand their word mastery.

Dictionary of Problem Words in English

à la

This phrase from French is a shortened form

of à la mode de (in the style of”)

In English, à la is used, frequently overused,

to mean “in the manner of,” “like,” “according to.”

Its appearance in a sentence

such as “She dresses à la a Hollywood star”

is correct but also pretentious and forced.

Restricted used of a’ la to such standard expressions

as “à la carte” and “à la mode,”

for which there are no acceptable substitutes in English.