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A private talk between two people, with nobody else there. English borrowed it whole from French, where it literally means 'head to head' — you can picture two people leaning close so no one else hears. It is a slightly fancy, playful word, and it is not neutral: a tête-à-tête sounds intimate, or confidential, or gently gossipy. People use it for two lovers at a corner table, for two old friends catching up, or for two politicians or bosses meeting quietly without their staff. Say 'a tête-à-tête with someone', and the plural is 'tête-à-têtes'. It also works as an adverb — 'they tête-à-tête' means just the two of them, alone together. English keeps the French spelling with its accents and the French-ish pronunciation, roughly 'tet-a-tet'. If you want the plain everyday word instead, say 'a private chat' or 'a one-on-one'.
私下密談、兩人單獨談話(源自法文「頭碰頭」,帶點親密或私密的味道)
組成直接借自法文 tête-à-tête:tête 是「頭」,à 是「向、對」,合起來就是「頭對頭」。英文整組照搬,連連字號和法文帽子符號都留著。
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
tête-à-têtenoun/ˌtɛt.əˈtɛt/
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A face-to-face meeting, or private conversation between two people, usually in an intimate setting; a head-to-head.
- From the tête-à-tête with Mr. Thomas Tough, ſhe goes to her deſk again, and begins to write "With what appetite ſhe may," in the forlorn hope of procuring from her bookſeller part of the money ſhe has been compelled to promiſe to the ſaid Thomas's peremptory demands, on behalf of Mr. Humphrey Hotgooſe—[…]
- Despite their explorations of what the Vatican termed "the family", it was uncertain whether the pope and the president concerned themselves with such issues during their behind-closed-doors tête à tête.
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furniturelifestyleA bench or sofa that allows two people to talk face-to-face, especially one that is S-shaped.
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A variety of early flowering, fragrant daffodil.
tête-à-têteadv/ˌtɛt.əˈtɛt/
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In private, between two people; head-to-head.
- Swankey of the Body Guard himself, that dangerous youth, and the greatest buck of all the Indian army now on leave, was one day discovered by Major Dobbin tête-à-tête with Amelia, and describing the sport of pig-sticking to her with great humour and eloquence […]
- In particular his tête-à-tête luncheons were described, to which, as it now turned out, practically every journalist listening had at one time or another been invited.
資料來源:英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary(CC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。