Debt and debt advice

Two thirds of the way down this list sits le tableau de budget, and the first word is one French noun where English keeps four. In French, le tableau is the ordinary word for a flat surface with something set out on it, and it reaches a long way: le tableau noir is the blackboard, le tableau de bord is the dashboard of a car, a painting in a gallery is un tableau, and so is any grid of figures in rows and columns. English has a separate and unrelated word for each of those — board, dashboard, painting, table — and not one of them will carry the French noun on its own. It is the last of the four that a debt adviser means: le tableau de budget is a table, one sheet with two columns, a month of income against a month of outgoings, which is why le tableau de budget tient sur une seule feuille. English did borrow « tableau », but for one narrow job only, a group of figures posed and held motionless on a stage, so « budget tableau » names a piece of theatre rather than a budget.