German words from French
61 German words with French in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
aktuell
It is borrowed from French actuel (“real, present, effective”), from Late Latin āctuālis (“active, effective”), formed from āctus (“a doing, act”), from agō (“to drive, do”). The same word is Dutch…
Auto
It is short for Automobil, borrowed from French automobile, and like the full word it follows a French model, auto. Kluge dates the short form to 1913, first as the first element of compounds, and…
Ball
1. The round object is inherited from Middle High German bal, inherited from Old High German bal, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *ballu, inherited from Proto-Germanic *balluz. The same word is…
Chance
It is borrowed from French chance (“luck, prospect, possibility”), borrowed at the beginning of the 19th century according to Pfeifer, Paul and the Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch. Kluge and the Duden…
Chef
It is borrowed from French chef (“head, chief, leader”), borrowed at the beginning of the 17th century. The French word goes back through Old French chief and Vulgar Latin *capus to Latin caput…
Dame
It is borrowed from French dame (“lady”), borrowed at the end of the 16th century, beside Italian dama and Spanish dama. The Old French dame comes from Medieval Latin domna, the syncopated form of…
Energie
It is borrowed from French énergie, from Late Latin energīa (“effectiveness”), from Ancient Greek ἐνέργεια (enérgeia, “activity, effective force”). Pfeifer and the DFWB date the borrowing to the…
Engagement
It is borrowed from French engagement (“pledging, commitment”), a noun of engager (“to bind, pledge”), properly “to take into one's pay”, which was formed from gage (“pledge, wages”) with the prefix…
Experte
It is borrowed from French expert (“expert; experienced”), borrowed in the early 19th century. This goes back to Latin expertus (“experienced, tried, proven”), the past participle of experior (“to…
falsch
It is inherited from Middle High German valsch (also vals), borrowed from Old French fals, from Latin falsus (“false, deceptive”), the past participle of fallō (“to deceive”). The ending ⟨sch⟩ comes…
fehlen
It is inherited from Middle High German vælen, borrowed from Old French faillir (“to miss, err”). Kluge dates the borrowing to the 13th century, but the Grimms' revised dictionary has a record from…
Fraktion
It is borrowed from French fraction (“fraction, part; grouping”), from Latin frāctiō (“breaking”), from frangō (“to break”), past participle frāctus. Kluge dates it to the 17th century; the DFWB…
französisch
It is inherited from Middle High German franzoisisch (also franzoisch), formed with the suffix -isch from franzois (“French”), borrowed from Old French françois. The Old French adjective belongs to…
Gruppe
It is borrowed from French groupe, first a term of the visual arts, which comes from Italian gruppo (“cluster, group”), older also groppo (“knot, lump”). German made the word feminine, after Truppe…
Hotel
It is borrowed from French hôtel, ostel, from Late Latin hospitāle (“guest room”). The French noun is related to hôte (“guest, host”), from Latin hospes (“guest; host”), and German Hospital has the…
Initiative
It is borrowed from French initiative (“right to propose laws”), a term of French constitutional law that came up in the debates of the Revolution around 1790. Kluge dates the borrowing to the 19th…
interessant
It is borrowed from French intéressant, the present participle of intéresser (“to interest”), borrowed at the beginning of the 18th century. The verb belongs with intérêt (“interest”), which goes…
interessieren
It is borrowed from French intéresser (“to interest”) according to the Duden dictionary and the German-language Wiktionary, while Pfeifer, Duden's etymological dictionary and the Early New High…
Kanton
It is borrowed from French canton (“corner; district”), from Italian cantone, an augmentative of canto (“corner”). Pfeifer traces the Swiss word instead to the Lombard use of the same noun for a…
Karriere
In its modern sense it is borrowed from French carrière (“racecourse; course of life, career”), borrowed in the 18th century. Kluge derives the French word from Italian carriera (“road”), Pfeifer…
Karte
It is inherited from Middle High German karte (“stiff sheet of paper”), borrowed from French carte (“stiff sheet”), borrowed in the 14th century. The French word goes back to Latin charta (“sheet of…
Kilometer
It is borrowed from French kilomètre (1790), from kilo- (“thousand”), formed from Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi, “thousand”), and mètre, from μέτρον (métron, “measure”). It came into German in the…
Koalition
It is borrowed from French coalition, from English coalition, borrowed in the 18th century. The English word goes back to Medieval Latin coalitio (“union, assembly”), formed from Latin coalēscō (“to…
komplett
It is borrowed from French complet, borrowed in the 17th century. The French adjective goes back to Latin complētus (“full, complete”), the participle used as an adjective of compleō (“to fill up”)…
Kontrolle
It is borrowed from French contrôle, borrowed in the 18th century, contracted from older contre-rôle (“counter-roll, duplicate register”), from contre (“against”) and rôle (“roll, list”). These…
kosten
1. The verb meaning “to cost” is inherited from Middle High German kosten, borrowed from Old French coster (“to cost”) (now French coûter). Pfeifer dates the borrowing to about 1200, on the Middle…
Kritik
It is borrowed from French critique, borrowed at the end of the 17th century, from Ancient Greek κριτική (kritikḗ, “the art of judging”), from κριτικός (kritikós, “able to judge, deciding”), from…
kritisieren
It is borrowed from French critiquer (“to criticize”), recorded from the 17th century, but with the German verb suffix -isieren in place of a French ending. The Grimms' dictionary notes that the…
liefern
It is borrowed from Middle Low German lēveren (“to deliver”), a term of the Hanseatic merchants, borrowed from Old French livrer (“to hand over, deliver”), from Latin līberō (“to free, release”)…
Meter
It is borrowed from French mètre, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”). The French word was recommended in 1790 as the name of the basic unit of length in the system of measures set up by…
Milliarde
It is borrowed from French milliard (“a thousand million”), borrowed in the 18th century. Kluge derives the French word from Old Occitan milhar (“a full thousand”), from Latin mīliārium (“a…
modern
It is borrowed from French moderne, borrowed for good at the beginning of the 18th century, from Late Latin modernus (“current, present, new”), from modo (“only, just; just now”), an adverb that was…
offiziell
It is borrowed from French officiel (“official”), borrowed at the end of the 18th century. The French word goes back to Late Latin officiālis (“belonging to duty or office”), from Latin officium…
Organisation
It is borrowed from French organisation, borrowed in the second half of the 17th century. The Grimms' dictionary traces the French noun further to New Latin organisatio. It belongs to organiser (“to…
organisieren
It is borrowed from French organiser, with the German verb suffix -ieren, borrowed in the 18th century. The French verb is a derivative of organe (“tool, organ”), formed on the model of Medieval…
Parlament
It is inherited from Middle High German parlament, borrowed from Old French parlement (“speech, discussion”), borrowed in the second half of the 13th century, probably under the influence of…
Partei
It is inherited from Middle High German partīe, borrowed from Old French partie (“part, side, party”), the noun use of the feminine past participle of partir (“to divide”), from Latin partior (“to…
Partie
It is borrowed from French partie (“part; party; game”), taken over in the 17th century, and so lacks the diphthong of Partei, the same French word borrowed in Middle High German. The French noun is…
passen
It is inherited from Middle High German passen (“to reach one's goal”), borrowed from Middle Dutch passen, borrowed from Old French passer (“to go from one place to another, cross, pass”): the verb…
passieren
It is borrowed from French passer (“to pass, go through”), borrowed in the early 16th century. The French verb continues Vulgar Latin *passō (“to step, pass through”), from Latin passus (“step”)…
Pause
It is inherited from Middle High German pūse, borrowed from Old French pause, from Latin pausa (“halt, stop, end”), from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis, “rest, ceasing”), from παύω (paúō, “to make…
Plan
It is borrowed from French plan (“ground plan, design”), borrowed at the beginning of the 18th century and long pronounced in the French way. French has had the word since 1553. The origin of the…
Platz
It is inherited from Middle High German plaz, borrowed from Old French place (“open space, square”), from Latin platea (“broad street”), from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa, “street”), short for…
Politik
It is borrowed from French politique (“science of government”), borrowed in the middle of the 17th century. The French word goes back to Late Latin polīticē (“art of government”), from Ancient Greek…
politisch
It is borrowed from French politique, from Latin polīticus (“of the state”), from Ancient Greek πολιτικός (polītikós, “of the citizens, of the state”), from πολίτης (polī́tēs, “citizen”), from πόλις…
präsentieren
It is inherited from Middle High German prēsentieren, borrowed from Old French presenter (“to offer, put at someone's disposal, introduce”), borrowed in the Middle High German period. The French…
Präsident
It is borrowed from French président, from Latin praesidēns (“presiding, commanding”), the present participle of praesideō (“to preside, lead, command”), used as a noun. That verb is formed from…
Preis
It is inherited from Middle High German prīs, borrowed from Old French pris (“praise, glory, reward, value, price”), from Latin pretium (“value, money, price, reward”). Kluge names French prix as…
Produktion
In its modern senses it is borrowed from French production, taken over in the 18th century. The word had already been used in German in the second half of the 16th century, after Latin prōductiō (“a…
prüfen
It is inherited from Middle High German prüeven, also spelled brüeven and pruoven, borrowed from Old French prover (“to prove, test”), which continues Latin probō (“to test, examine; to approve”)…
Rang
It is borrowed from French rang (“row, order”), borrowed in the 17th century, during the Thirty Years' War. It comes in turn from Old French renc (“row, line of battle”), which first meant the…
Redaktion
It is borrowed from French rédaction, borrowed at the end of the 18th century. The French noun was formed to rédiger (“to draw up, write down”), from Latin redigō (“to drive back, bring into…
Rolle
It is inherited from Middle High German rolle or rulle, borrowed from Old French rolle (“roll of parchment, list”), from Medieval Latin rotulus and rotula (“small wheel”), diminutives of Latin rota…
Roman
It is borrowed from French roman (“novel”), from Old French romanz, romant (“a story in the vernacular”), borrowed in the first half of the 17th century. The Old French word first named a text…
rund
It is inherited from Middle High German runt, borrowed from Old French ront (“round”), from Vulgar Latin *retundus, a dissimilated form of Latin rotundus (“round”), from rota (“wheel”), which is…
Saison
It is borrowed from French saison (“season, time of year; suitable time”), borrowed in the later 17th century. The French word probably comes from Latin satiō (“sowing, planting”), from serō (“to…
Situation
It is borrowed from French situation (“position, site”), borrowed in the late 16th century, at first sometimes with Latin or French inflection. Kluge and Duden derive the French noun from situer…
sozial
It is borrowed from French social, from Latin sociālis (“of society, sociable”), from socius (“sharing; companion”). Duden, Wahrig and the Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch connect socius with sequor (“to…
traditionell
It is borrowed from French traditionnel, borrowed in the early 19th century; the French adjective, of the 18th century, is formed from tradition. In German it can also be seen as Tradition with the…
Truppe
It is borrowed from French troupe (“group of people; body of soldiers”), borrowed at the beginning of the 17th century as a military word, separately from Trupp, which comes from the same French…