au courant
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French au courant (literally “to the current”).
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
au courant (comparative more au courant, superlative most au courant)
- Up to date; informed about the latest developments; abreast.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume I, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849, →OCLC, page 135:
- Doctor Portman and Smirke were both cautious of informing the widow of the constant outbreak of calumny which was pursuing poor Pen, though Glanders, who was a friend of the house, kept him au courant.
- 2013 October 23, Meghan O’Rourke, “Watching American Movies in Paris”, in The Atlantic[1]:
- As Hemingway once noted, Paris is an old city—and so even a 1946 film looks au courant: part of the aesthetic air.
- 2023 February 11, Janan Ganesh, “After Germany's fall, which is the paragon nation?”, in FT Weekend, page 22:
- A paragon from the Global South, as no one I know who lives there calls it, would be very 21st century, very au courant.
Synonyms edit
Translations edit
informed — see in the loop
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
Usage notes edit
Traditionally invariable, but feminization (as in the expression elle est au courante), though perhaps prescribed, is not unheard-of.