The French Government has banned the use of the Twitter term ‘hashtag’ for fear it will undermine “linguistic purity”.
The Académie Française, responsible for maintaining the standards of French, came up with a list of words and terms that should be avoided by public figures and teachers.
Instead the term ‘mot-diese’ is to be used when referring to Twitter’s tagging system.
Other words that have found their way on to the Académie’s list include 'email', 'blog', 'supermodel', 'take-away', 'parking', 'weekend' and 'low-cost airline'.
Sports commentators have also been encouraged to use 'entraineur' and 'coup de pied de coin' instead of 'coach' and 'corner' during football matches.