Category talk:French words
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Please exercise some caution when adding articles to this category. Wikipedia is not a dictionary. Well-written articles are generally about things, not about words, except in the case of words that are unusual enough to merit an article about the word itself. Articles should only be added to this category if the article is about the word, not about the thing the word describes. See Use-mention distinction for an explanation of the difference between using a word and mentioning the word itself. Thus, for example, Acquis belongs in this category because the article is about the word itself. Avalanche, Blond, Buffet, and Monocle do not belong because the articles are about the things described, not the words themselves, even though the words are of French origin. Less clear examples of articles that don't really belong here are Coupé, Denouement, and Femme fatale. I would make an exception for articles that describe a thing which is exclusively French, using the French name, such as Brioche, Dérive and Droit de seigneur. Even some of the articles that do fit the rule above as currently written, should really be edited to focus on the thing rather than the word (per the Guide to writing better articles). Examples of this include articles like Attaché and Entrepreneur.
In general, I think that this category is a bad idea. Categorizing words makes more sense in Wiktionary. A better way to deal with this kind of material within Wikipedia is to make a list, such as List of English words of French origin.
A secondary issue: A large fraction of words in the English language originally come from French. In order to keep this category sensible, I suggest that if you wouldn't consider writing the word in italics to emphasize its foreign origin, you probably shouldn't consider adding it to this category.--Srleffler 04:59, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
