Why these words should be set in italic, why a due posti would not be equally clear in quotation-marks or in parentheses, why métayer should not be in quotation-marks, are questions not to be answered satisfactorily, but when it is the plain order of the author to set phrases or words like these in italic, that direction must be obeyed. There are foreign words, used for the first time, that need some distinction, and there are others that have no proper equivalents in English. Here follows a sentence in which the use of italic seems to be regarded by the writer as not only admissible but commendable:
He was told that she was very unhappy, pour lui et par lui, and that his attentions had been compromettant to her prospects as well as destructive to her peace.
Pour lui et par lui and compromettant have satisfactory equivalents in English, but these equivalents do not convey the alliteration and the play on words intended by the writer.
There is increasing resistance to the excessive use of italic. The foreign words and phrases that have been practically incorporated in the English language are now preferably put in roman, as in
- aide-de-camp
- addenda
- ad valorem
- alias
- alibi
- alma mater
- anno domini
- ante-bellum
- à propos
- beau idéal
- billet-doux
- bona fide
- bon-ton
- bravos
- café
