volte-face

See also: volte face

English

WOTD – 15 July 2011

Etymology

Borrowed from French volte-face.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɒltˈfæs/, /-ˈfɑːs/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

volte-face (plural volte-faces)

1. A reversal of policy, attitude or principle.

   Synonyms: about-face, U-turn

Translations

a reversal of policy, attitude or principle

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: կտրուկ շրջադարձ (ktruk šrǰadarj)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 变卦 (zh) (biàn guà)

• Czech: obrat o 180 stupňů m
• Dutch: draai (nl) m, volte-face (nl) f
• Finnish: takinkääntö (fi)
• French: volte-face (fr) f, demi-tour (fr) m, marche arrière (fr) f, revirement (fr) m
• German: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: voltafaccia (it) m, voltagabbana (it) m, traditore (it) m, banderuola (it) m, voltacasacca m
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: reviravolta f
• Russian: круто́й поворо́т (krutój povorót), резкая переме́на (rezkaja pereména)
• Spanish: media vuelta f
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• volte-face on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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French

Etymology

Calque of Italian volta-faccia, itself from voltare (“to turn”) + faccia (“face”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɔl.t(ə).fas/

Noun

volte-face f (plural volte-face or volte-faces)

1. U-turn; about face (act of turning round 180 degrees)
2. (figuratively) U-turn; volte-face

Further reading

• “volte-face”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.