Le tout (Paris)

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Le tout - for example, le tout Paris - is an expression using the French language which serves as an in-group marker. It is applied to a town, city or culture. It is pronounced in English as it is in French: 'lur too' (and Paris is realized as 'par-EE') IPA: /lə tuː (pa ˈriː)/. It is an adjectival phrase which means literally '[the] all [e.g. Paris]', and has an identifying function very similar to the upper-class English expression 'everyone who is anyone [was there]', where 'anyone' denotes "any person considered important, influential, or discerning" (OED 2020); this English expression, like the French, suggests that 'we' (the interlocutors) are people who can discriminate those who are 'important, influential, or discerning', and by implication that we ourselves are to be 'considered important, influential, or discerning'.