en garçon

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French en garçon.

Adverb

en garçon (not comparable)

1. As a bachelor, or as if one were a bachelor; without one's wife.
   • 1887, Mrs. [wife of?] Alexander Fraser, “Drifting”, in Daughters of Belgravia, volume 3, London: F. V. White & Co., page 116:

     "Were Lady Shropshire and Lady Silverlake there?"
     “Oh, no!—the husbands are doing Paris en garçon."
     "How very horrid!" she decides. "You wouldn't care to go about en garçon, would you, my own?”
     "Certainly not," he answers fervently. But he has made up his mind to go out en garçon all the same.

   • 1912, E. F. Benson, chapter IV, in Mrs. Ames, Toronto, London: The Musson Book Company Limited; Hodder and Stoughton, pages 97-98:

     “Of course, we talked over your delightful dinner-party of last night,” he said, “and agreed in the agreeableness of it. And she asked me to dine there, en garçon, on Tuesday next. Of course, I said I must consult you first; […] But if there was nothing going on, I promised to dine there en garçon.”
     That phrase had evidently taken Major Ames’ fancy; there was a ring of youth about it, and he repeated it with gusto.

French

Etymology

Compound of en +‎ garçon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃ ɡaʁ.sɔ̃/

Adverb

en garçon

1. like a boy or young man
   • 1631, Iean de Serres, Inventaire General de l'Histoire de France[:] Depuis Pharamond iuſques à preſent […] , Paris: Nicolas Gasse, page 80:

     Vne ieune fille aimée par vn homme docte (ce ſont ſes mots) vint auec luy en Athenes, habillé en garçon: […]

     A young girl loved by a learned man (these are his words) came with him to Athens, dressed as a boy: […]

2. like a bachelor
   • 1864, Ernest Serret, “Confidences d'une Amie”, in Neuf filles et un garçon, Paris: Libraririe de L. Hachette et cie, page 222:

     Tu n’as pas même songé à la responsabilité qui pesait sur toi. Tu as continué de vivre en garçon, sans t’imposer aucune contrainte, et ta femme est devenue ce qu’elle a pu, presque ta servante, tout au plus ta camarade.

     You didn't even think about the responsibility weighing on you. You continued to live like a bachelor, without imposing any constraints on yourself, and your wife became what she could, almost your servant, at most your friend.