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fiancé & fiancée
Feb. 26th, 2025 07:37 amfiancée (fee-ahn-SAY, fee-AHN-say) - n., a woman engaged to be married, the woman one is engaged to.
fiancé (fee-ahn-SAY, fee-AHN-say) - n., a man engaged to be married, the man one is engaged to; (discouraged) a person engaged to be married, the person one is engaged to.
A two-for, with a pile of usage notes. In French, feminine nouns and adjectives are given a final, usually silent -e, and for some borrowings English retains this distinction -- though many of those, such as blonde/blond, are losing this. Fiancé sometimes gets used instead of fiancée, but this is still often considered incorrect. Losing the é is more erratic, but enough people see fiancee as weird (the correct pronunciation isn't obvious) that fiancée has some pull, though fiance isn't uncommon. In French, the deep root is Latin fidus, faithful.
---L.
fiancé (fee-ahn-SAY, fee-AHN-say) - n., a man engaged to be married, the man one is engaged to; (discouraged) a person engaged to be married, the person one is engaged to.
A two-for, with a pile of usage notes. In French, feminine nouns and adjectives are given a final, usually silent -e, and for some borrowings English retains this distinction -- though many of those, such as blonde/blond, are losing this. Fiancé sometimes gets used instead of fiancée, but this is still often considered incorrect. Losing the é is more erratic, but enough people see fiancee as weird (the correct pronunciation isn't obvious) that fiancée has some pull, though fiance isn't uncommon. In French, the deep root is Latin fidus, faithful.
---L.
