the.com/manoeuvre
A move so calculated it needed an extra vowel to sound sophisticated.
means A planned, skillful movement or strategic action designed to achieve a particular result while dodging some obstacle.
from From French manœuvre, built from Latin manu operari — 'to work by hand.' The military sense (troops executing a calculated movement) came first, then it spread to politics and everyday scheming. English borrowed it whole, extra vowels and all, which is why it's been tripping up spellers for centuries — the 'oeu' cluster is pure French residue, a little souvenir of hand-labor that outlived the labor itself.
- spelling split
- British keeps the o, Americans dropped it
- origin
- French for hand work, manu plus oeuvre
- military roots
- originally troop movements, now covers any clever dodge
- pronunciation trap
- looks like six syllables, said in three