Sunday Times, July 23, 2017
What is it about restaurant critics that they feel the need to show off with fancy words? My husband and I have read a lot in our time, and we had never seen this one. Nor had an even better-read friend. It turns out to be a French word meaning ‘sudden deterioration’. I have given a large chunk of this tedious review so that you can judge for yourselves if it is le mot juste. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Anyway, as it is a French word which is in no measure anglicised, in my opinion it should be in italics and have an acute accent over the first ‘e’. Better still, don’t use it at all unless you want to look silly.