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I was just listening to an NPR radio broadcast that was discussing Ulysses and James Joyce. They were interviewing residents of Dublin and one woman said that Joyce wrote about the life of a flâneur (I'm paraphrasing since the interview was long.)
What surprised me was her use of the French word flâneur - one who walks about without hurry, with no specific destination.
Is this common? This is the first time I've ever heard an English person use the word.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Interesting, bel. You gotta remember, though, that calling a Dubliner an Engish person is like calling an USn a Yank  . I heard the same interview, btw (and totally missed the flaneur bit; I was impressed by the way she pronounced "Ulysses."
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calling an USn a Yank
Nuh-unh. It's more like calling a Quebecois a Yank.
I heard it, too, and would have spelled it flannor. Din't hear no eu.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Flaneur is one of those words I'm vaguely aware of, and I associate it with the Edwardians. Perhaps Joyce himself used the word and that's where she got it.
Bingley
Bingley
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"In Paris, in London I have been a happy flâneur;
I have flâné-d in New York and Washington and most
of the great cities of Europe."
- H. G. Wells, Apropos of Delores, 1938
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Can't say I've ever heard the word spoken over here, although I've read it occasionally (but not for a long time, I have to say!)
I've never looked it up, but have assumed from context that it refers to an elegant idler - one who is idle because he can afford not to work and chooses to idle, rather than someone who should work but doesn't.
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old hand
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old hand
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Zigackly. P G Wodehouse writes about them. And I'd definitely go with the idea of a languid man-about-town.
So Bel, it has a long precedent of use in English, but is probably archaic these days (and hence confined to halls of acedeme)!
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>>>and hence confined to halls of acedeme...and wwftd I have to admit that I am rather surprised that so many of you had heard/read the word. The eu in the word makes it difficult to pronounce in English so I would have thought it wouldn't have been used at all. Mind you, that may be exactly the reason for its fall out of use.
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Pooh-Bah
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I don't think it will fall out of use, bel, until after it has fallen into use, which I would guess it never has done over here. As shanks rightly says, it is only people like Wodehouse (which is almost certaianly where I last read it, come to think! Gold Star to shanks.) who have used it. As to the "eur" ending, most Brits are fairly used ot this because of "fleur", as in Fleur-de-lys, which is an common armorial device in English heraldry, therefore seen all over the place over here (even by them what knows knothing of 'eralds and the like!). As to the 'alls of hacademe using such words, I fear that British academia has gone the way of most other cultural institutions and has dummed down - you don't hear erudite conversation in the Senior Common Rooms any more - not least because none of us have time to spend there 
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