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Can't resist appending a footnote to this thread. Just got back from a 
two-week vacation, otherwise would have chimed in sooner. 
 
As several have mentioned, the infinitive is perfectly sound French here. 
Haven't you ever ridden the Paris Metro, and seen the window warnings, 
 
<< Ne pas se pencher au dehors >> ? 
That's infinitive. 
(In politically incorrect times, we used to say that it translated as "Do 
not pinch the ...") 
 
The infinitive is standard for official instructions. It looks odd in 
French to give an official instruction in the imperative, which looks like 
the second person plural -- it seems too personal. 
 
The pronunciation?  In English, "lay say fare"; the English long-a 
diphthong "ay" is a poor rendering of the French closed e (as in e accent 
aigu). << Laisse >> has a short e, but in << laisser >> or << laissez >> 
the first vowel becomes closed by a process called <<harmonisation 
vocalique >>. 
 
Finally, nobody else appealed to the Oxford English Dictionary, so here is 
the listing from that source -- note that the earliest cite (in English 
sources) is 1825, and that the early cites have -ez, the later ones -er: 
 
Also laisser-faire. [Fr.; laissez imp. of laisser to let + faire to do, 
i.e. let (people) do (as they think best). Laissez faire et laissez passer 
was the maxim of the French free-trade economists of the 18th c.; it is 
usually attributed to Gournay (Littré s.v. laisser).]  
 
A phrase expressive of the principle that government should not interfere 
with the action of individuals, esp. in industrial affairs and in trade. 
Also attrib. Hence laissez-faireism; laissez-fair(e)ist, one who believes 
in a doctrine of laissez-faire. 
 
1825 [MARQ. NORMANBY] Eng. in Italy I. 296 The laissez faire system of 
apathy. 1848 Simmonds's Colon. Mag. Aug. 338 Mammonism, laissez-faireism, 
Chartism, currency-restriction [etc.]. 1873 H. SPENCER Stud. Sociol. xiv. 
352 Shall 
we not call that also a laissez-faire that is almost wicked in its 
indifference. 1887 
 
Contemp. Rev. May 696 The ‘orthodox’ laissez-faire political economy. 1891 
S. C. SCRIVENER Our Fields & Cities 168 Laissez-faire is the motto, the 
gospel, of the person who lives upon the work of another. 1932 G. B. SHAW 
Platform & Pulpit (1962) 252 A Cabinet of talkers and Laisser-fairists. 
1944 A. JONES Right & Left 16 The Conservative is neither a planner nor a 
laisser-faire-ist. 1966 Guardian 1 Dec. 8/6 Professor Peacock..isn't too 
keen on being cast as a ‘relentless laisser fairist’.  
 
Martin C. Tangora 
University of Illinois at Chicago 
 
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