# What is an aperçu? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 29, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738 "2020-11-29T21:29:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ArtBeforeScience](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@ArtBeforeScience](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArtBeforeScience)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/1 "2020-11-29T21:29:21Z")
I stumbled across this word in some academic journal and can’t find a decent discussion of what it means, much less examples of actual aperçus. It’s some sort of clever summary or aside that encapsulates or perhaps expands the thread of discussion. Seems like it should be a dessert with brandy. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/2 "2020-11-29T21:41:49Z")
For what it’s worth, the OED defines it as " A summary exposition, a conspectus. Also, a revealing glimpse; an insight." But perhaps you’re looking for something more than a dictionary definition. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/3 "2020-11-29T21:57:38Z")
> a comment or brief reference that makes an illuminating or entertaining point. > “the narrative is enlivened by aperçus of Butler, Kennedy, and other contemporaries” > An _apercu_ is a brief, clever review or summation of something. If your synopsis of last week’s episode of your favorite TV show is funny and sharp, you can call it an _apercu_ . > > Sometimes an apercu is simply a witty comment or a clever anecdote: “He is so fun at parties because he always comes up with such brilliant _apercus_ .” The word is often spelled with a cedilla, a French accent that softens the _C_ so that it’s pronounced like an _S_ : _aperçu_ . The word is from the French _apercevoir_ , “to perceive.” [Cite](https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/apercu) > # [apercu in a sentence](https://eng.ichacha.net/zaoju/apercu.html) > > [definition of “apercu”](https://eng.ichacha.net/ee/apercu.html) > > - He’s also not bad when it comes to meaningless apercus. > - Who was better at the lethal apercu than Frank Rich? > - Hine has a knack for couching his apercus in clear, pithy language. > - But Ms . Shelly’s screenplay doesn’t contain a single pithy apercu. > - Rather, he rambles through the centuries and across continents, dispensing anecdotes, apercus and curious facts. > - With their patterned verses and carefully prepared apercus, they remain within time-tested country and folk formats. > - These are comparatively songlike, their apercus concentrated in hook lines that are surrounded by more quotidian stuff ." > - It dispensed Wilde’s apercus with a brittle insouciance that is largely missing from this souped-up version. > - In a production that is otherwise so short of ideas, such tiny apercus announce themselves like fire engines and drown out mere speech. > - Planting salty apercus among strings of goofy rhymes, Prine contemplates the absurdity of the human condition with a skewed, sideways sense of humor. > - It’s difficult to see apercu in a sentence . > - Along the way, Baker serves up dozens of interesting ( or, depending on your point of view, irrelevant ) facts and apercus. > - In the appointed hour, the psychotherapist listens and says little, except toward the end, usually, where some synthesis issues forth in apercu. > - The distinctive voice, which speaks to the reader in the second person, is full of hilarious, poignant asides, digressions, opinions and apercus. > - Her apercu explains why a list of New York’s most talked-about hosts of the 20th century does not contain the name Brooke Astor. ---
**Author:** ![ArtBeforeScience](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@ArtBeforeScience](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArtBeforeScience)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/4 "2020-11-29T22:00:40Z")
Yes, I want to understand why this word is so clever. It seems to have a lot of… innuendo. For example the word “elide” supposedly means to omit a syllable when speaking but I’ve heard that one used to mean “lie by omission” or “avoid the main point” because you’re eliding, i.e. dropping it out and then stitching the other parts of the truth together. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/5 "2020-11-29T22:03:50Z")
In Dope-speak: TL;DR. Perhaps this qualifies as an aperçu to @ThelmaLou’s thorough explanation. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ArtBeforeScience](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@ArtBeforeScience](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArtBeforeScience)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/6 "2020-11-29T22:16:16Z")
HA! @LSLGuy I think you have it. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/7 "2020-11-29T22:47:34Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > explanation My lazy comment can hardly be dignified with the label “explanation,” but thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/8 "2020-11-29T23:05:59Z")
> [@OED](#): > > A summary exposition, a conspectus. I’ve never seen the word “conspectus” before. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/9 "2020-11-29T23:15:45Z")
Here is a depiction of a woman hunting aperçus. [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/g2lBmTp.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/pt9Xj73) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/10 "2020-11-29T23:22:06Z")
**Modding** : Op thought it might be food related and it is already too screwy for GQ 🙂, so I’m going to pawn it off to MPSIMS. Move from Café to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-apercu/926738/11 "2020-11-30T01:13:05Z")
well…THis takes me back to the mid 70’s obscure album from my favorite band at the time Enjoy the lyrics, try not to get to heady… [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/y9SWITyQjmQ/hqdefault.jpg "Kansas - Apercu") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9SWITyQjmQ)