francés

Forms

francés (feminine francesa, masculine plural franceses, feminine plural francesas)^[1] Old Spanish texts have françes, franzes and francesc.^[2]

Etymology

The DLE takes it as borrowed from Occitan fransés, and García de Diego and Gómez de Silva also derive it from Provençal.^[3][4][5][6] Gómez de Silva allows Old French franceis or françois as an alternative source, from France, from Late Latin Francia “land of the Franks”, from Francus (“a Frank”).^[6] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited from Latin francēnsis, formed from Latin Francia + -ēnsis.^[1]

Catalan francès is derived by Alcover and Moll from a Latin derivative of the name of the Franks.^[7] French français goes back to the Old French form, first recorded in the Song of Roland, a derivative of the name of the country.^[8] Portuguese francês is taken from Old French by Cunha and Nascentes.^[9][10]

In Old Spanish franco, the name of the Franks, could also mean the French in general.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEMel's earliest primary record is in the Mozarabic documents of Toledo in 1177, and francesc occurs in a document of 1183.^[2] Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for a native of France, and the camino francés, the pilgrim road to Santiago, appears in the same chronicle.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has meant “of France” and “a native of France” since the Middle Ages, and the noun also names the language.^[12][3] Cervantes has lengua francesa and cosarios franceses in the Quijote.^[14] The mal francés was syphilis.^[15] The Academy recorded in 1817 that Francés had been a man's name, from which Francisco was first a diminutive.^[16]

A la francesa “in the French manner” came to mean leaving without saying goodbye, a sense Domínguez already gives in 1846.^[17][3] In Guatemala and Yucatán francés is a kind of wheat bread, and Moliner and Vox record a slang sense “fellatio”.^{[4][18][19][20]} Tagalog borrowed the word as Tagalog Pranses.^[1]

Timeline

• 1177 – earliest primary record, in the Mozarabic documents of Toledo.^[2]
• 1183 – the form francesc in a document of the Pilar archive.^[2]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for a native of France.^[12]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: cuchillos franceses “French knives”.^[21]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros records mal francés “syphilis”.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy notes the old man's name Francés.^[16]
• 1846 – Domínguez records a la francesa “without saying goodbye”.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. French: of France or the French.^[3][1]
2. Of the French language: la gramática francesa.^[3]

Noun

1. A Frenchman or Frenchwoman, a native of France.^[3][1]
2. The French language, a Romance language that arose around Paris.^[3][1]
3. (Guatemala) A loaf of French bread.^[4]
4. (slang) Fellatio.^[19][20][1]

Word family

• afrancesar
• afrancesado

Related words

• franco
• Francia
• French français
• Portuguese francês

Usage notes

Despedirse a la francesa means to leave without saying goodbye.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. francés
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. francés
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. francés
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2912
6. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 316
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. francès
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. français
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1606
10. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. francês
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 945
12. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. francés
13. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. francés
14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 537
15. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 183
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 424
17. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 828
18. ^ Ramos y Duarte, Félix (1895), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Imprenta de Eduardo Dublán, p. 266
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. francés
20. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. francés
21. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. francés