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Reader question: Please explain this sentence (in an article about “Accidentally offensive habits of American tourists” via Yahoo.com, August 24, 2017): Being rude or too loud can obviously get you in trouble, but other faux pas are more subtle. Faux pas? My comments: Obviously being loud in a quite hotel lobby is one of the faux pas cited in this story, i.e. behaviors that are considered rude and offensive. In other words, impolite. “Faux pas” is French in origin, literally meaning false step. Or wrong move, referring to one’s behaviors that are considered inappropriate, out of place and rude, causing embarrassment. A faux pas, remember, is never a big crime, like rape and murder, but always a small social misstep, a slip, a gaffe. Such as smoking in a public place where cigarettes are not allowed or throwing the cigarette butt directly to the floor instead of an ash tray or a trash can. All in the presence of other people, to everyone’s shocked and stunned look. Or slurping your noodles with a motor-engine noise. You may slurp your soup with any type of noise if you like in, say, your own private room, when you are alone, when, I mean, all your family members are outside, when, that is, there’s no chance of you disturbing anyone but your dear slurping self. That’s the other thing with faux pas. It refers to social gaffes and blunders, i.e. mistakes made in a social setting, when you’re with other fellow human beings. | 
