Fax, Faux, Faux Pas

We have e-mail, fax machines and digital phones so that we can stay connected and yet we live in a time where human beings have never been less connected. We have lost touch with our humanity. We have lost touch with our purpose. We have lost sight of the things that matter the most.” –Who Will Cry When You Die? by Robin Sharma

Fax functions as a noun and verb. It is a 20th century word that came into use in the late 1940s as a result of facsimile telegraphy. Fax is a copy of document obtained by facsimile telegraphy wherein the original document is scanned and the signal is transmitted in an electronic form via radio or telephone wires, and the document at the receiving end is printed out.

Fax comes from the word facsimile: and it is a shortened version of facsimile (facs). Though such a technology was in use for decades but it sprang into popular usage in the 1970s. With the passage of time, the noun became a verb like Google, google.

With the electronic and digital communications evolving and innovating, the usage of fax has become lesser and lesser: documents are scanned and sent via emails instead of faxing.

It is rare to hear: can you fax this for me, please? By fax in digital age?

So, are the fax machines.

Faux is an adjective meaning something that is fake, not original (markets are flooded with faux pearls, faux diamonds, faux designer bags), counterfeit item, articles or things that are imitated to look like the original ones, things that are not genuine.

Faux is used to form compound words such as faux-leather

If you live long, you have no choice other than to wear faux teeth.

Faux pas, functions as a singular and plural noun, means a social blunder, gaffes, mistakes committing in the public life that gets noticed especially by politicians, celebrities, television anchors among others. It is pronounced as faupa(z).

Faux pas is a French term meaning false step, first recorded in the 17th century.

There are instances when people in public life were victims of faux pas like some television anchors when presenting programmes and news or current affairs.

Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda’s faux pas was having a nap in the public forums.

Faux pas are uncommon unlike faux items but when faux pas happen now and then, and are reported in the main stream or social media.

A TV anchor of DD lost her job for her on-air faux pas: she pronounced Chinese President Xi Jinping as ‘Eleven Jinping’.