French words first recorded in the 12th century

It is formed from French bon + jour, literally “good day”, Old French bon jor, short for “souhaiter le bon jour” “to wish (someone) a good day”. “Bon” continues Latin bonus (“good”), and “jour”…

It is inherited from Old French cachier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *coacticō (“to press together”), a strengthened form of Latin coāctō (“to constrain”), the frequentative of cōgō (“to drive…

The origin is uncertain. It is either a crossing of hutte with words such as cabane and caverne, or “hutte” with a pejorative prefix ca-. Wiktionary discusses whether Middle Dutch kayhute (modern…

It is from French ce (“this, that”) + ci (“here”). The neuter pronoun “ce” is from popular Latin Vulgar Latin *ecce hoc (“behold this”), with Old French “iço”, “ice” and “ço”, “ce”; as it became…

It is formed from French ce + là. The pronoun ce comes from popular Latin “*ecce hoc” “behold this”, Old French iço, “ice”, “ço”; once “ce” had become unstressed, “cela” replaced it as the stressed…

It is borrowed from Latin cōnsōlārī (“to comfort, console”), a compound of com- and sōlor (“to comfort”), preferred to the simple verb in classical prose. Rey notes a possible link with Ancient…

It is borrowed from Latin cōnstruō (“to heap up in layers; to build; to construe”), from com- and struō (“to arrange, pile up”). The Latin word was given its French form after détruire. Rey suggests…

It is formed from French danger + -eux. “Danger”, Old French “dangier”, comes from a late Latin “*domniarium” “power”, from Latin dominus (“lord, master”). The Medieval Latin nickname “Dangerosa”…

It was formed as the opposite of empêcher, replacing its prefix with dé-. That verb comes from Late Latin impedicō (“to catch in a snare, fetter”), from pedica (“fetter”). Littré reports Diez's…

It is borrowed from Latin dīrēctus (“straight; without detour”), the past participle of dīrigō (“to direct, steer”), the source of diriger. In Late Latin it also meant “without intermediary”. The…

It is borrowed from Latin ēnervō (“to remove the sinews; to weaken, exhaust”), from ex- in a privative sense and nervus (“sinew, tendon”), the source of nerf.

It is formed from French évident + -ment, with haplology. évident is from Latin ēvidēns (“clear, manifest”), a compound of ex- and videō (“to see”). Compare Old Occitan evidenmen.

It is inherited from Old French fesse, inherited from Vulgar Latin *fissa, meaning both “anus” and “buttocks”, a neuter plural taken as a feminine of Latin fissum (“cleft, slit”), the noun use of…

It is probably formed with the prefix a- and a verb ending on bille (“log, piece of a tree trunk”), so “to prepare a log”, hence “to lop and bark; to prepare, make ready”. The noun is traced to…

It is inherited from Old French hos, borrowed from Frankish *hulis (“holly”), reconstructed from Old High German hulis, later “huls”, and Middle Dutch huls. Compare German Hülse and English holly.

It is borrowed from Latin immōbilis (“immovable”), with its form adapted to meuble. The Latin adjective is formed from in- (“not”) and mōbilis (“movable”). The legal sense was taken from Medieval…

It is borrowed from Latin lībertās (“the condition of a free person; civic rights; independence; frankness”), from līber (“free”) (see libre). In Medieval Latin it also meant a privilege or charter…

It is borrowed from Latin līber (“free; not a slave”). Wiktionary calls the Old French “livre” a semi-learned form, and traces the Latin word through Old Latin loeber and Proto-Italic *louðeros to…

It is a compound from French lors + que. The /s/ of “lors” had fallen silent, and its pronunciation in “lorsque” was restored only in the 17th century: Daniel Martin still wrote “lorke” in 1632. The…

It is formed from French lune + -ette, literally “little moon”, from Latin lūna (“moon”). The link with the moon was gradually lost as the optical senses grew in importance. The word for spectacles…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin mumia, “mummia” (first half of the 12th century), the bituminous substance taken from embalmed bodies and used as a medicine, itself from Arabic مومياء (mūmiyāʔ…

It is borrowed from Latin opīniō (“conjecture, belief, idea one forms of a thing”), a derivative of opīnor (“to think, suppose”), which gave the verb opiner. In Latin the word rendered the…

It is borrowed from Latin percurrō (“to run through, run over; to survey, pass in review”), adapted after courir. The Latin verb is formed from per (“through”) and currō (“to run”). Littré and…

It is the past participle, used as a noun, of the old verb partir “to share, divide”, as in “avoir maille à partir”. “Partir” is from Latin partior (“to share, divide”), from pars (“part”). Compare…

It is inherited from Old French poule, inherited from Latin pulla (“young hen”), the feminine of pullus (“young of an animal; chicken”), the source of poulain. Latin “pullus” was used early for a…

It is the fusion of Old French prins tans, a compound of the old adjective prin (“first”) (see prime) and temps “time, season”. It may go back to Latin prīmum tempus (“the first season, the good…

It is inherited from Old French pute, the feminine of the Old French adjective put (“stinking; bad, vile”) used as a noun, which continues inherited from Latin pūtidus (“stinking, rotten”), from…

It is borrowed from Latin rēgula (“straightedge, ruler; standard, rule; rod, bar”), from regō (“to guide, direct”) (see régir). This learned form drove out the older ones handed down from the same…

It is from French re- + mercier, from Old French mercier (“to thank”) (“Chanson de Roland”, about 1100), from merci. “Merci” is from Latin mercēs (“wages; price; favour”). “Mercier” remained in use…

It is borrowed from Latin resolvō (“to untie, loosen; to dissolve; to pay; to explain”), adapted after the Old French verb soudre (“to pay”), itself from Latin solvō (“to loosen, release; to pay; to…

It is borrowed from Latin spectāculum (“sight, view; show in the circus or theatre”), from spectō (“to look at, watch”), the frequentative of the archaic speciō (“to look”), from the Indo-European…

It is the present participle of suivre, used as an adjective, a noun and, from 1459, a preposition. The verb, at first sivre, comes from Vulgar Latin *sequere, for Latin sequor (“to follow”)…

It is an alteration of ante, inherited from Latin amita (“father's sister”). The origin of the ⟨t⟩ is disputed. The TLFi, Bloch–Wartburg and Rey see a nursery form, with the consonant repeated as in…

It is borrowed from Old Occitan truc (“blow, knock”), a noun formed from trucar (“to knock, strike”), from Vulgar Latin *trūdicō, derived from classical Latin trūdō (“to push, thrust”). Rey relates…

It is from French tuer + -eur. The verb tuer first meant “to extinguish”; it goes back to Vulgar Latin *tūtō, from Latin tūtor (“to protect, guard against”), which in phrases about staving off…

It is a word of the dialects of the north and east of France, inherited from Old French wisine, inherited from Latin officīna (“workshop, factory”), with a sound development of its own in those…