Word of the Day
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
tete-a-tete
\TAYT-uh-TAYT; TET-uh-TET\ , adjective;
1.
Private; confidential; familiar.
noun:
1.
A private conversation between two people.
2.
A short sofa intended to accommodate two persons.
Quotes:
Once you have a couple of offers in hand, ask the boss for a tete-a-tete.
-- Michelle Cottle, "Seeking That Fair Day's Pay.", New York Times, January 24, 1999
George Adamski, a penny-ante guru already in the flying saucer business, lecturing on the subject and selling his own UFO photos, had his first tete-a-tete with a Venusian named Orthon, who explained by dumb show and telepathy that his saucer was powered by Earth's magnetism.
-- Thomas M. Disch, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of
Raw garlic will give you plenty of this disulfide, but cooking gets rid of it because it is volatile enough to evaporate during cooking. This is the reason you can safely eat a soup or stew that has lots of garlic in the recipe, and still enjoy a friendly tete-a-tete with someone.
-- John Emsley, Molecules at an Exhibition
Origin:
Tete-a-tete comes from the French, literally "head-to-head."
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