à propos de bottes

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French à propos de bottes (literally “on the subject of boots”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌæpɹəˌpəʊ də ˈbɒt(s)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌæpɹəˌpoʊ də ˈbɑt(s)/
• Hyphenation: à pro‧pos de bottes

Adverb

à propos de bottes

1. (dated) Apropos of nothing; without connection to anything; by the way, unrelatedly.
   • 1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XI, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 62:

     In fact, the renovated appearance of this monster—à propos de bottes, as one may say—had already excited considerable sensation among the population of Hazeldean.

   • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, “Narrative of the Spirited Old Lady”, in More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 86:

     'That is a strange remark,' said he; 'and à propos de bottes, I never continue a cigar when once the ash is fallen; […]'

   • 1892 May 14, “Essence of Parliament — Extracted from the Diary of Toby, M.P.”, in Punch, or the London Charivari, volume 102, 2005 Gutenberg edition:

     Suddenly jumped up; shook fist at back of ASQUITH's unoffending head, and, à propos de bottes, "wanted to know about the swindling companies and their shareholders?"

   • 1907, Porter Lander MacClintock, Literature in the Elementary School‎^[1], Gutenberg, published 2011:

     Of course, it is rather characteristic of the folk-mind, as of the child-mind, to heap up incidents à propos de bottes; but as this is one of the characteristics to be corrected in the child by his training in literature, so it is one of the faults which should exclude a fairy-tale from his curriculum.

   • 1921, Lytton Strachey, “Marriage”, in Queen Victoria, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, section VI, page 138:

     Moody, restless, and unhappy, he wandered like a ghost about the town, bursting into soliloquies in public places, or asking odd questions, suddenly, à propos de bottes.

   • 1925, Aldous Huxley, chapter I, in Those Barren Leaves […], London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, part I (An Evening at Mrs. Aldwinkle’s), page 9:

     Suddenly, for no reason, in the middle of the night, or even in the middle of the jolliest party, she would remember an ancient floater—just like that, à propos de bottes—would remember and be overcome by a feeling of self-reproach and retrospective shame.

   • 1952, Anthony Powell, A Buyer's Market (A Dance to the Music of Time, Volume 2), Fontana Books, page 225:

     Analysis at that moment was in any case out of reach, because I realised that I had been left, at that moment, standing silently by Mrs Wentworth, to whom I now explained, à propos de bottes, that I knew Barnby.

Alternative forms

• a propos de bottes