très

See also: Appendix:Variations of "tres"

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French très. Attested in English from the 19th century. Doublet of trans.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /treɪ/, /trɛs/

Adverb

très (not comparable)

1. (colloquial, fashion, usually before English adjective) Very, to superior degree.
   • 1947 January 1, Hod., “An Innocent at Large”, in Punch, volume 212, page 16, column 2:

     My view is that a fraternity is nothing more than a très snob clique or caucus, but I may be wrong.

   • 1983, Donna Steinberg, I Lost it All in Montreal, page 30:

     He must look très sexy in a towel, I thought with a smile, très sexy indeed.

   • 2002, Cathy Hopkins, White Lies and Barefaced Truths (Truth, Dare, Kiss or Promise), page 212:

     I seemed to have shot up a few more inches over the last year and some of my jeans were stopping short of my ankles. Très uncool.

   • 2010, Christopher Moore, Bite Me: A Love Story, page 17:

     We have this très cool apartment, and all of the money, and Foo almost has his master’s in bio-nerdism or whatever, and I only have to go home like twice a week so the mother unit still thinks I am living there.

   • 2015, Cosmo’s Let’s Get Naked, page 223:

     Dim lighting plus backrub equals très romantic, and a massage candle kills two lovebirds (Thank you, we’ll be here all week) with one stone.

Related terms

• très chic
• très gauche

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French trés, from Old French trés, inherited from Latin trāns, from Proto-Indo-European *terh₂- (“through, throughout, over”). Doublet of trans- and trans.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʁɛ/, (before a vowel) /tʁɛ.z‿/ ~ /tʁe.z‿/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: très
• Homophones: traie, traient, traies, trais, trait, traits

Adverb

très

1. very

Descendants

• → Esperanto: tre
  • → Ido: tre

Further reading

• “très”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• sert