Question by John McGraw: Why do we say résumé in English if they say CV in French?
Any ideas? It seems a little silly to steal a word from a language when they don’t even use it.
Best answer:
Answer by LadyB
CV refers to Curriculum Vitae, which is in fact a resume, however the CV format is usually used for scholars, professors, and such.
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Well in the UK we say CV quite a bit, I’m not so sure about America and Canada.
The British also use CV instead of résumé.
Think of it like this. It’s the modern way of saying it. I’m pretty sure at some part in their history, they used it it. Remember too that the English language has many roots and it borrowed may terms from French: ‘coup-d’etat’ for example. You might find it interesting that in other languages, example Japanese, they take words from many other languages as well.
It’s not silly at all since there are terms we introduced that we ourselves don’t use as well. Times change, things become modern, lifestyles alter. Language is alive and changes to suit as well.
Résumé in French actually means “summary”.
It’s somehow a summary of your life.