I have to keep my head about me as I place my order. First there is the gender issue; every French noun is assigned a sex, masculine or feminine. Personally, I think my croissant is a woman, as tender and fragile as a Brontë heroine. But apparently, the Académie Française, the guys who make the dictionary, have decided that “croissant” is masculine, un croissant. I have been outvoted.