Skip to content

standing

social standing, prestige

noun stan-DEENG Rare

Origin: English loanword, from 'standing'

Usage Note

Standing is a French borrowing from English used specifically to mean social status or the prestige level of a building or establishment — un appartement de grand standing means a luxury, high-prestige apartment. It is not used for the act of 'standing up'. This false-friend usage is a classic example of French semantic narrowing of an English loan.

Examples

"C'est un hôtel de grand standing."

Natural Translation

It is a high-prestige hotel.

Explore French by topic