French words first recorded in the 12th century

It is inherited from Old French burre, inherited from Latin būtyrum, borrowed from Ancient Greek βούτυρον (boúturon, “butter; ointment”), literally “cow cheese”, from βοῦς (boûs, “cow”) and τυρός…

It is inherited from Old French bruller, of uncertain origin. Its second part is generally taken from Old French usler (“to scorch”), inherited from Latin ustulō (“to scorch, singe”), from ūrō (“to…

It is borrowed from Latin causa (“reason, motive; lawsuit, case”). The Latin word is of unknown origin, perhaps pre-Latin or borrowed; the sense “motive” seems older than the legal sense “interest…

It is an adaptation, made at different times, of Latin chorus (“dance; band of dancers and singers; chorus of tragedy”), from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “dance; dancers; dancing place”)…

It is formed from Old French com (“how, as”) (see comme) and bien. “Com” continues Latin quōmodo (“how”). Littré compares Walloon kiben.

It is borrowed from Latin comprehendō (“to grasp, seize; to include; to understand”), in its contracted form “comprendere”. Bloch and Wartburg and Wiktionary present it as inherited from popular…

It is borrowed from Latin conclūdō (“to shut up, enclose; to end; to infer”), formed from cum (“with”) and claudō (“to close”), the source of clore. In Church Latin it was used for making peace…

It is derived from couvrir with the suffix “-ure”, probably influenced by Late Latin coopertūra (“covering, veil”). The Grand Robert, the GLLF and Wiktionary take it straight from the Late Latin…

It is borrowed from Latin dēpōnō (“to put down; to deposit; to give up; in Late Latin, to depose”), remade after poser; the Latin verb is formed from dē- and pōnō (“to put”). Wiktionary calls it…

It is from French é- + face + -er, formed in Old French as “esfacer”, properly “to remove the face, the figure”, with the privative prefix “es-” from Latin ex-. face continues Late Latin facia, from…

It is formed from French é- + lever, partly blended with a borrowing of Latin ēlevō (“to lift up; to lighten; to weaken, belittle”), itself formed on levō (“to raise”). Bloch and Wartburg allow a…

It is inherited from Latin īnfantia (“early childhood; children; inability to speak”), from īnfāns (“not speaking; child”), the source of enfant. The TLFi describes it as taken from classical Latin…

It is borrowed from Latin excūsō (“to excuse, justify, exonerate”), properly “to put out of the case”, from ex- and causa (“cause, reason; lawsuit”). The word is thus related to cause, chose and…

It is inherited from Old French fichier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *figicāre, later *ficcāre, from Latin fīgō (“to drive in, fix, pierce”). P. Guiraud supposed instead a form based on fictus, a…

It is borrowed from Latin iūstus (“in accordance with law; just, right; proper”), derived from iūs (“law, right”) (see jurer). Wiktionary notes that Old French also had a form “just”, which may have…

It is borrowed from Latin malignus (“wicked, malicious”), from malus (“bad”) (see mal). The Old French form was the same for both genders; about 1460 a masculine was made on the model of adjectives…

It is inherited from Old French menacier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *mināciō, from Latin minācia (“threat”) (see menace). The Vulgar Latin verb replaced classical minor (“to threaten”) in that…

It is borrowed from Latin mōnstrum (“portent, prodigy; monster”). The Latin word comes from moneō (“to remind, warn”): in religious language it was a prodigy warning of the will of the gods, then…

It is a deverbal noun from French montrer. The verb, first mostrer, continues the popular form Vulgar Latin mostrō, beside written mōnstrō (“to show”), from mōnstrum (see monstre); the ⟨n⟩ was…

It is from French mors + -eau, from Old French mors “bite, morsel”, with the diminutive suffix “-el”, later “-eau”. “Mors” is from Latin morsus (“bite”), from mordeō (“to bite”) (see mordre)…

It is inherited from Old French oef, inherited from Vulgar Latin *ŏvum, from classical Latin ōvum (“egg”). Bloch and Wartburg explain that the Latin word lost its /v/, the /o/ being opened by…

It is borrowed from Latin patiēns (“enduring, long-suffering”), the present participle of patior (“to suffer, endure”), used as an adjective; the same verb gave pâtir. patience was borrowed at the…

It is inherited from Old French plovoir, inherited from Vulgar Latin plovō (“to rain”) (attested in Petronius in the imperfect), beside classical Latin pluō (“to rain”); the French verb shows a…

It is inherited from Old French preiere, inherited from Medieval Latin precāria (“charter of request, petition”), recorded in 658 in Merovingian Latin. This is the feminine of the classical…

It is borrowed from Latin prīnceps (“first; chief; emperor”), formed from prīmus (“first”) and capiō (“to take”): “he who takes the first place”. “Prīnceps senātūs” was the first member of the…

It is from French profit + -er, from the noun profit. “Profit”, in Old French mostly “pourfit” and remade after Latin, is from Latin prōfectus (“progress, advance”), from prōficiō (“to make…

It is borrowed from Latin prōpōnō (“to place before the eyes, set forth; to intend, propose”), with its form adapted to poser. The Latin verb is from prō (“before”) and pōnō (“to place”) (see…

It is borrowed from Latin prōvocō (“to call out; to challenge; to provoke; to appeal”), first adapted as purvoquer and later remodelled on the Latin. The Latin verb is formed from prō (“forth…

It is derived from puissant (“powerful”). The adjective, Old French poissant, is a present-participle form of pouvoir, remade after the forms of the verb with the vowel ⟨ui⟩; The verb continues…

It is borrowed from Latin revēlō (“to uncover, unveil”), from re- marking movement back and vēlō (“to cover, veil”) (see voiler), from vēlum (“veil”). In Late Latin Christian writers used it for…

It is inherited from Old French soufire, a Frenchified form of Latin sufficiō (“to put under; to supply; to be enough”), from sub- and faciō (“to make, do”). The modern spelling is a remaking after…

1. The adjective is borrowed from Latin subiectus (“placed under; subjected, subject”), the past participle of subiciō (“to place under; to subject”), from sub- and iaciō (“to throw”). The early…

1. Pride is borrowed from Latin superbia (“pride, arrogance”), derived from superbus (“proud”). Cognate with Old Occitan superbia, Spanish soberbia and Italian superbia. 2. The adjective is borrowed…

It is borrowed from Latin suppōnō (“to put under; to substitute; to subject”), with its form adapted to poser. The Latin verb is from sub (“under”) and pōnō (“to put, place”) (see pondre). The sense…

It is inherited from Old French trembler, inherited from Vulgar Latin *tremulāre, from tremulus (“trembling”), from tremō (“to tremble; to fear”). The derived verb was preferred to the classical one…

It is borrowed from Latin ūnitās (“oneness, unity; sameness”), derived from ūnus (“one”), the source of un. Cognate with Old Occitan unitat, Spanish unidad and Italian unità.

It is inherited from Old French vain, inherited from Latin vānus (“empty; hollow, without substance; vain”). Rey places the Latin word in an Indo-European family of words beginning with /w/ that…

It is inherited from Old French vaissel, inherited from Late Latin vāscellum (“small vessel; cinerary urn; dishes”), a variant of classical vāsculum (“small vessel”), diminutive of vās (“vessel…

It is inherited from Old French veillier, inherited from Latin vigilō (“to be awake; to be watchful; to tend”), through a contracted Vulgar Latin form. The Latin verb is derived from vigilia…

It is inherited from Old French vuidier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *vocitō, from *vocitus (“empty”) (see vide). Wiktionary connects these forms with Latin vacuus (“empty”). Cognate with Italian…

It is borrowed from Latin vīsiō (“action of seeing; what is seen”), from vīsum, the supine of videō (“to see”). In Latin it also meant an image of things and, figuratively, a conception or idea, and…

It is a compound from French bon + heur (“luck, fortune”). heur, Old French “aür”, “eür”, is from Latin agurium (“omen”), an altered form of classical “augurium” “omen, augury”; with the decline of…

It is inherited from Old French bort, borrowed from Frankish *bord (“side of a ship”). The Frankish word is reconstructed from Old Norse borð (“edge; the upper side of a ship”) and related to Old…

It is a noun formed on the Old French verb bouter (“to strike, push; to put”) (see bouter). That verb comes from Frankish *bōtan (“to strike”), Bloch and Wartburg compare Old Norse bauta (“to…

It is inherited from Old French coc, inherited from Late Latin coccus, found in the Salic Law (6th century), a word of imitative origin; Petronius already writes the cock's crow “cocococo”. Rey…

It is inherited from Old French crues, inherited from Vulgar Latin *crosus, of uncertain origin. Because the word is spread through Gallo-Romance (Old Occitan cros) and the Rhaeto-Romance and…

It is the Old French adverb endreit (“exactly, precisely”) used as a noun; the adverb was formed from French en + droit (“straight; exactly”), and also served as a preposition meaning “near, at the…

It is inherited from Old French façon, inherited from Latin factiō (“a making; manner of doing”), accusative “factiōnem”, from the supine of faciō (“to do, make”) (see faire). The learned borrowing…

It is inherited from Old French forest, inherited from Late Latin forestis, probably from the phrase “silva forestis”, a forest under the king's court of justice, from Latin forum (“court of…

It is borrowed from Latin generālis (“belonging to a kind; general”), derived from genus (“kind, race”) (see genre). The Latin adjective was a philosophical term, “relating to a genus or species”…

It is borrowed from Latin genus (“birth, descent; race; kind, sort”) (genitive “generis”), which covered all the senses of the Old French word; in philosophy, after Greek, “genus” was opposed to…

It is borrowed from Latin notō (“to mark; to write down; to designate; to brand with censure”), a derivative of nota (“mark, sign”), which gave note. Rey derives the Latin noun from nōscō (“to get…

It is borrowed from Late Latin nūtrītūra (“action of feeding”), remade after nourrir; the Latin noun is formed on nūtrītum, the supine of nūtriō (“to feed, nourish”). The TLFi and Bloch and Wartburg…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pinctūra, a remaking after the verb pingō (“to paint”) (see peindre) of classical pictūra (“the art of painting; a painting; description”). Cognate with Old…

It is inherited from Old French plum, inherited from Latin plumbum (“lead; lead shot; lead pipe”). The origin of the Latin word is obscure; it is probably borrowed from a Mediterranean language…

It is inherited from Old French plongier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *plumbicō (“to weight with lead”), derived from plumbum (“lead”) (see plomb); the verb was first said of nets and sounding lines…

It is from French pute + -ain: the Old French oblique case of “pute”, formed like nonnain beside “nonne”. “Pute” was the feminine of the Old French adjective put (“stinking; foul, vile, wicked”)…

It is inherited from Old French rote, inherited from Vulgar Latin *rupta, short for the phrase “via rupta”, literally “a broken, opened way”, from the feminine past participle of Latin rumpō (“to…

It is inherited from Old French sein, inherited from Latin sinus (“curve, fold; fold of the toga across the chest; bosom; bay”). The fold of the toga, gathered over the shoulder, was where women…

It is formed from French seul + -ment, from the feminine “seule”, Old French solement. Wiktionary traces the Old French form to a Medieval Latin “sōlā mente”; the base seul continues Latin sōlus…