Q. Our editorial staff is stumped for the correct plural spelling of tartare, as in more than one "steak tartare" and "tuna tartare."

A. Tartare is French for "Tartar" and comes from the traditional association of the Tartars with the consumption of raw food. Although we enter only steak tartare in our dictionaries, we have ample evidence of salmon, lamb, tuna, veal, buffalo, mackerel, ahi, and a host of other kinds of meat and meat being used to make tartare. We even have a citation for "tomato tartare" — which is basically an uncooked tomato that has been chopped and seasoned to resemble some kind of meat tartare.

Although the majority of our citations show that tartare is used in combination with the name of the chief ingredient, we have evidence of tartare being used as a stand-alone noun. This evidence comes from some of the leading figures in the food world. From Gourmet magazine: "This tartare is cut into segments like rolled sushi. . . ." From the dining section of the New York Times: "a tartare of fresh tuna enhanced with lemon juice." From Wine Spectator: "a mild tartare of Spanish mackerel."

Since tartare is treated in English as a noun, it can be pluralized, and in fact it is pluralized. In the New York Times, the former restaurant critic Bryan Miller and the noted chef Pierre Franey referred to "the newly popular seafood tartares." And in Wine Spectator, the noted food writer John Mariani wrote about "fish tartares" and "a trio of tartares-hamachi, yellowfin tuna, and salmon." With authorities like that, you should not hesitate to use "steak tartares."

Q. I have a question about your entry for the word nickel. I noticed you list an alternate spelling as nickle; could you tell me about that spelling? Is it slang?

A. Of nickle and nickel, the latter is the original spelling, the usual spelling, and, in the opinions of many people, the only correct spelling. Even so, nickle is common in casual writing and, in fact, not at all rare in edited prose. We have examples from the Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, and the Reno (Nevada) Gazette-Journal.

Nickle has been used in professional writing from around the country. It's not a regional or slang spelling; it's not limited to one sense of the word, and it's not, as some believe, inherently wrong. That being said, it's probably safer to use nickel because other people might assume nickle is a misspelling.

Q. We have heard the term high faluting or high falutin' but is faluting a word or some derivative of another word? Is there an accepted definition of the term? And am I spelling it incorrectly?

A. The word appears in the dictionary as a closed compound highfalutin and hifalutin (though other less common variations can be found in print, such as high falutin', highfaluting, high-faluting, and high faluting). Faluting (or falutin) is not a word on its own. Its origins are unknown, but it is thought that it perhaps comes from fluting (the present participle of the verb flute, meaning "to make flutelike noises"). The Oxford English Dictionary also suggests the possibility that faluting was "a grandiose equivalent of 'flying' or 'flown.'" The word is first known to have appeared in print (spelled high-faluting) in 1839, though it was likely to have been in use for some time before that.