carte blanche

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French carte blanche, referring to a blank or white card.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kärt-blänsh, IPA^(key): /kɑɹtˈblɑnʃ/

Noun

carte blanche (countable and uncountable, plural cartes blanches)

1. Unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “[…] But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic ? […] Does your carte blanche run so far as that also ?”

   • 2012 May 15, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: The Dictator”, in The Onion AV Club:

     Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles have indeed retreated with The Dictator, but they’ve gone back 80 years, when the Marx Brothers were given carte blanche at Paramount Pictures with a five-movie run that ended with their best movie, 1933’s Duck Soup.

   • 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 15,

     Indeed, I later learned that when they had bought the place, in 1930, they had given my father's older sister Lina their checkbook, carte blanche, saying, "Do what you want, get what you want.

2. A blank paper that is signed by some authority and given to a person to fill as they please.

Synonyms

• free rein
• proxy in blank
• blank check

Translations

unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority

• Arabic: تَفْوِيض مُطْلَق m (tafwīḍ muṭlaq), ضَوْء أَخْضَر m (ḍawʔ ʔaḵḍar)
• Bengali: আলিহুকুম (alihukum)
• Catalan: carta blanca f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 全權／全权 (zh) (quánquán), 全權委託／全权委托 (quánquán wěituō)

• Danish: carte blanche c or n
• Dutch: carte blanche (nl) f
• Finnish: avoin valtakirja, vapaat kädet (fi)
• French: carte blanche (fr) f
• German: Blankovollmacht (de) f, freie Hand f, Carte blanche (de) f
• Indonesian: carte blanche
• Italian: carta bianca f
• Japanese: 白紙委任 (はくしいにん, hakushi inin), 白紙委任状 (はくしいにんじょう, hakushi ininjō)
• Persian: کارت بلانش (kârt-blânš), کارت بلانش (اختیار تام)
• Polish: carte blanche (pl)
• Portuguese: carta branca (pt) f
• Russian: карт-бла́нш (ru) m (kart-blánš)
• Spanish: carta blanca f
• Swedish: carte blanche (sv) n
• Ukrainian: карт-бла́нш m (kart-blánš)

Adverb

carte blanche

1. As an undifferentiated mass, without regard to distinctions; willy-nilly. (Possibly from confusion with another French phrase, en masse.)
   • 2007, Gordon J. Hilsman, Intimate Spirituality: The Catholic Way of Love and Sex, →ISBN, page 114:

     Can gay and lesbian people in justice be excluded carte blanche from the sacrament of sexual love sharing, let alone from church membership or leadership?

   • 2014, Robert J. Lake, A Social History of Tennis in Britain, →ISBN:

     The mass production of tennis equipment made it more affordable, such that blue-collar workers were no longer excluded carte blanche as before the war (Birley 1995b).

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaʁ.t(ə) blɑ̃ʃ/

Noun

carte blanche f (plural cartes blanches)

1. carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority)

   Synonym: champ libre

   avoir carte blanche ― to have carte blanche

   donner carte blanche ― to give carte blanche

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see carte,‎ blanche.

Indonesian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French carte blanche.

Noun

carte blanche (first-person possessive carte blancheku, second-person possessive carte blanchemu, third-person possessive carte blanchenya)

1. carte blanche: unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority.

   Synonyms: kertas kosong, kertas putih

Further reading

• “carte blanche” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Swedish

Alternative forms

• charta blanck (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from French carte blanche, attested since 1666.

Noun

carte blanche c

1. carte blanche (unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority)
   • 2001, August Strindberg, edited by Torbjörn Nilsson, Samlade Verk 11. Tidiga 80-talsdramer‎^[1]:

     Nu, den 13 september 1883, ger Strindberg regissören carte blanche att »ändra och bråka med pjesen» - han har, förklarar han, »förlorat allt intresse för teatern».

     Now, on September 13, 1883, Strindberg gives the director carte blanche to "change and quarrel with the play" - he has, he explains, "lost all interest in theater."

   • 2018 October 25, Mattias Beijmo, “Så vill myndigheterna övervaka oss svenskar [How the authorities want to monitor us Swedes]”, in Aftonbladet (opinion piece):

     Underrättelsetjänsten menar att de inte exakt vet vad man letar efter, och därför måste de vara friare att själv besluta sig för vad de samlar in och från vem. De vill ha ett ”carte blanche” för avlyssningen av människors digitala liv.

     The intelligence service claims that they do not exactly know what they are looking for, and therefore need more freedom to decide for themselves what to collect and from whom. They want a "carte blanche" for eavesdropping on people's digital lives.

2. (dated) blank check

   Synonym: blankocheck

See also

• blankett (“form; carte blanche”)
• fria tyglar (“free reign”)

References

• carte blanche in Svensk ordbok (SO)