Words without a topic IV

Ninety words with nothing in common but their usefulness, and one of them catches an English reader every time. La finalité looks exactly like « finality », and the two point in different directions. In English, « finality » is about closure: the quality of being settled, past appeal, not to be reopened — the finality of a verdict, the finality of a goodbye. In French, la finalité is about what a thing is for: its purpose, its aim, the result it is meant to produce. La finalité de la collecte doit être indiquée, printed on a data form, asks what the data will be used for; it says nothing at all about whether the collection can be undone. The mismatch works in both directions. For the English sense, French says le caractère définitif — and définitif sits a few lines above in this very list. For the French sense, English has purpose, aim or object, which is why the gloss here is purpose and nothing ending in -ity. Read « finality » into that form and a question about why the data is gathered becomes a claim that the gathering cannot be reversed.