contretemps /KON-trə-ton/. noun. An awkward, embarrassing, difficult situation or disagreement. A minor disagreement. A clash. Originally a French fencing term contre-temps (an unfortunate accident, a mistimed motion), from Latin contra (against) + tempus (time).
“…so irresistibly had the sense of the ludicrous in this unhappy contretemps taken possession of his fancy, that he sang out a long, loud, and canorous peal of laughter…” (Thomas De Quincey)
“Except for a minor contretemps when Agnes caught the dog Gambol in the kitchen, trying to steal a capon, and chased him out into the hall, calling him names and brandishing a broom, the dinner was all it should be…” (Fiona Buckley)
“Our little contretemps and my little rising tide have gone off together in a stout, chilly breeze. Good spirits are notoriously more fragile than bad.” (Richard Ford)
“It was as great a contretemps as she had feared. The priests showed the coldness natural in undertakers who had been summoned to a house where there was nobody even ill…” (Rebecca West)
“O Claribel, Claribel. No memory of her can elude for long our first contretemps. That is too bookish a word. Our wreck.” (Guy Davenport)