The two words that constitute the phrase are faux, which means “false,” and pas, which means “dance step.” Over time, faux has also acquired the meaning “fake,” which is the sense we’re familiar with from the phrase faux fur. The Origin and the Meaning of Faux Pasįaux pas is a loan phrase from French that’s been used in English since the seventeenth century-the 1670s, to be more precise. But some are still distinctly French, even though they’ve been used in English for centuries-like faux pas. Some French words have been so thoroughly assimilated into English that it’s hard to think about them as anything other than English (like the word “constitution,” for example). Not to mention the fact that French was a facilitator of the Latin influence on English’s vocabulary.
But you don’t need to know a lot of history to be aware of the influence French has had on the English language-it’s possible that roughly one-third of words in the English language today came into it through French. There is a long and complicated history between the English and French languages, much like there’s a long and complicated history between the United Kingdom and France. If you have to pronounce it, however, you should do it like this.
As far as writing it is concerned, you don’t have to worry about the plural of faux pas-it’s written the same as the singular.