vousvoyer

English

Alternative forms

• vouvoyer

Verb

vousvoyer (third-person singular simple present vousvoyers, present participle vousvoyering, simple past and past participle vousvoyered)

1. Synonym of vouvoy
   • 1966, Developing World: AUFS Readings, American Universities Field Staff, Inc., →LCCN, page 110:

     The much thornier problem of whether to vousvoyer or tutoyer Ahmadou solved itself. At first I sought refuge in the impersonal on ("Can one have a glass of water, please?" instead of "Please bring me a glass of water.") But Ahmadou was soon tutoyer-ing me as often as vousvoyer-ing me, although he continued to use the formal "Monsieur," so I came to use the familiar form in addressing him.

   • 1987, Jeremy Bernstein, The Life It Brings: One Physicist’s Beginnings, Ticknor & Fields, →ISBN, page 151:

     It was typical that once I learned to speak French, I could tutoyer both men, though they formally “vousvoyered” each other.

   • 1988, Patrick Alexander, Ryfka, Arrow Books, Century Hutchinson Limited, published 1989, →ISBN, page 214:

     It irritated her that since the bedroom incident he presumed to tutoyer her. She always took care to vousvoyer him back. With icy politeness.

   • 1991, Susan Louise Blake, Letters from Togo, University of Iowa Press, page 24:

     As for vousvoyering the help, Mahouna has tutoyéed me from the beginning.

   • 1995 November 30, Charles Stuart Kennedy, quotee, Anne O. Cary, The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, Foreign Affairs Oral History Project, published 2015, page 46:

     After using the familiar form "tu" you can’t go back to vousvoyering.

   • 1997 February 28, Elizabeth D. Zwicky, “NO CARRIER”, in soc.motss (Usenet):

     Everybody present, including me, thought it would be silly to vousvoyer somebody in bed; […] I've never needed to address someone in a communal shower, but I'd bet hard money that you'd vousvoyer. […] One tutoyers aquaintances, unless there is a reason not to, and one vousvoyers strangers. […] I know who I ought to be vousvoyering and who I ought to be tutoyering, usually, although I occasionally slip up anyway. […] I started into a sentence like that, using "vous", and my colleague absently corrected me to "tu", and then said hastily "but you can vousvoyer me if you want..." (I think he was considering the possibility I was vousvoyering him on purpose because I was mad at him, which I wasn't). […] François Mitterand^[sic] is said to have vousvoyered his dog

   • 1998 March 1, Lee Rudolph, “Cold shoulder?”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet):

     Is his vousvoyering of the lady supposed to be, like, ironic?

   • 2003 July 22, Marcel Beaudoin, “OT: air conditioning, or lack”, in rec.pets.dogs.behavior (Usenet):

     The texts say to vousvoyer (use impersonal) most of the time.

   • 2004 June 4, Alan Lothian, “Aides-moi, Christophe”, in sci.military.naval (Usenet):

     {note that it is the custom in francophone newsgroups to vousvoyer; I will have none of it. In italophone newsgroups, si da del tu.}

   • 2006 July 4, “Are you talking to moi?”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 46,989, page 17:

     One’s youngers, intimates, domestic pets and God are “tu”, though we are reliably informed that Mme Chirac vousvoyered her husband even before he reached the Elysée.

   • 2014, Charles Finch, The Last Enchantments, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 41:

     “I’m Will. I do English. What about you?” “French.” […] “[…] Refreshers, they’re supposed to be, vousvoyering. […]”