French words first recorded in the 12th century

It is borrowed from Latin silentium (“silence, stillness”), derived from sileō (“to be silent”). “Sileō” was first used of the absence of movement and noise, of things as well as people, more…

It is inherited from Old French sofler, inherited from Latin sufflō (“to blow on; to inflate”), formed with sub- (“under”) and flō (“to blow; to breathe out”). The simple verb was replaced in…

It is formed from Old French verai + -ment, from Old French “verai” (see vrai) and the adverbial suffix. Old French also had “voirement”, from “voir” “true”, which several dialects have kept…

It is inherited from Old French romanz, inherited from Vulgar Latin *rōmānicē (“in the Roman way, in the vernacular”), an adverb from Rōmānus (“Roman”) (see romain), used in opposition first to…

It is borrowed from Latin simplex (“formed of a single element; plain, artless; naive”), literally “folded once”. Rey connects its first element with the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *sem-…

It is from French simple + -ment, from the adjective simple with the adverbial suffix.

It is borrowed from Latin āctiō (“doing, acting; legal action”), from agō (“to do”) (see agir). Its first use, “action de grâce” “thanksgiving”, is a calque of Latin grātiārum āctiō, and Christian…

It is inherited from Old French anguisse, inherited from Latin angustia (“narrowness; narrow place; distress”), derived from angustus (“narrow”), from angō (“to squeeze, choke”). In classical Latin…

It is formed from French blesser + -ure, from the stem of the verb. The verb, Old French blecier, goes back to a Gallo-Romance form of Frankish *blettjan (“to bruise”), derived from a noun or…

It is borrowed from Frankish *kamarling (“officer in charge of the chamber”), reconstructed from Old High German chamarling; the stem is Latin camera (see chambre), since the Germanic peoples seem…

It is inherited from Old French chapel, inherited from Late Latin cappellus (“headdress”), recorded before 833, a diminutive of cappa (“hood, cape”) (see chape). Medieval Latin “capellus” also meant…

It is a deverbal noun formed from charger. The verb goes back to Late Latin carricō (“to load”), syncopated to carcō, from carrus (“wagon”), so that it first meant putting something into a wagon…

It is inherited from Old French chacier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *captiāre, formed on captus, the past participle of capiō (“to take, catch”), beside the classical frequentative captō (“to try…

It is inherited from Old French chaufer, inherited from Vulgar Latin *calefāre, a shortening of Latin calefacere (“to make warm; to excite”), a compound of caleō (“to be warm”) and faciō (“to…

It is inherited from Old French chiés, inherited from Latin casa (“house, hut”), with an irregular final that the TLFi and Rey explain by the word's unstressed position before a noun. The FEW also…

It is inherited from Old French coltel, inherited from Latin cultellus (“small knife”), the diminutive of culter (“knife; ploughshare”), which itself gave coutre “coulter”. The diminutive was the…

It is borrowed from Late Latin dēfēnsa (“defence”), the feminine past participle, used as a noun, of Latin dēfendō (“to ward off, defend”), the source of défendre. The Late Latin word was created in…

It is from French dé- + ployer, from Old French desploier, formed with des- on ploiier (“to fold”), from Latin plicō (“to fold”). Wiktionary also mentions a possible Late Latin displicō or Latin…

It is from French dès + or (“now”) + mais (“more”): literally “from this hour onwards”. Bloch and Wartburg see it as a strengthened form of Old French desor (“henceforth”) (11th–16th centuries). The…

It is borrowed from Latin doctor (“teacher”), an agent noun from doceō (“to teach”); in Christian Latin it meant a doctor of the Law, a priest who teaches the faith, and also a physician. The Petit…

It is a compound from French en (“away, from there”) + lever (“to raise”). “En” is the adverb of place, from Latin inde (“from there”), and lever is from levō (“to raise, lift”). Compare Old Occitan…

It is inherited from Old French entier, inherited from Latin integer (“untouched, intact; sound; upright”) (accusative “integrum”), formed from the negative in- and the root of tangō (“to touch”)…

It is a deverbal noun from espérer, formed on the stressed forms of its Old French present tense (j'espeir“, ”j'espoir“, ”tu espoires…), from Latin spērō, “spērās”. In Old French “espoir”, the first…

It is inherited from Old French esteindre, inherited from Vulgar Latin *extingere, from Latin exstinguō (“to put out (a fire); to wipe out”). The Latin verb has no simple verb beside it and is of…

It is inherited from Old French faleise, originally a dialect word of the coasts of Normandy and Picardy, probably from Frankish *falisa (“rock”), answering to Old High German felisa and German Fels…

1. It is inherited from Old French feire, inherited from Late Latin fēria (“market, fair”), from classical Latin fēriae (“days of rest, holidays”), since fairs were held on religious feast days (the…

It is borrowed from Latin fortūna (“chance, fate; luck; condition”), in the plural “goods, wealth”, the name of the goddess of chance, derived from fors (“chance”). Cognate with Italian fortuna…

It is inherited from Old French gage, from Early Medieval Latin wadium (“pledge”) (about 643, also in the Reichenau Glosses), from Frankish *waddi (“pledge”), a term of Germanic law. Cognate with…

It is inherited from Old French gaaignier, from Frankish *waidanjan (“to get food, to take booty”), probably at first “to graze cattle”, a sense kept by German Weide (“pasture”); Old High German…

It is the old nominative of garçon, whose oblique case survived as the ordinary word. Old French garz, “garçon” is borrowed from Frankish *wrakjo (“vagrant, outcast”), found in the latinized form…

It is inherited from Old French goster, inherited from Latin gustō (“to taste; to have a snack”), from gustus (“taste”) (see goût). Bloch and Wartburg note that the sense “to have a light meal”…

It is derived from the old verb harper (“to grip, seize”) (12th–18th century) with the suffix “-on”. Because the family appears late, in the west, with an aspirated “h”, Bloch and Wartburg and the…

It is inherited from Old French haucier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *altiō (“to raise”), from altus (“high”). The ⟨l⟩ of halcier was vocalized to ⟨u⟩ in the 12th century, and the initial ⟨h⟩ comes…

It is inherited from Old French mece, inherited from Vulgar Latin *micca (“wick”), a Gallo-Romance alteration, under the influence of Latin muccus (“mucus”), of Latin myxa (“lamp wick”), which is…

It is from French naturel + -ment. Compare Occitan naturalment, Spanish naturalmente and Italian naturalmente.

It is a deverbal noun from French pardonner (“to forgive”). The verb goes back to Late Latin perdōnō, found once, about 400, meaning “to grant, concede”; Etymonline analyses it as per- (“through…

It is inherited from Late Latin pariculus (“alike”), found once, in the “Remissoria” of the Salic law, an extended form of Latin pār (“equal”), the source of pair, just as “*soliculus” (whence…

It is inherited from Old French planter, inherited from Latin plantō (“to tread down the soil; to plant”), used in rustic Latin for pressing down the soil round a cutting. The Latin verb is from…

It is a compound of pour and tant, at first written separately: “pour tant” “for so much, for all that”. “Tant” is inherited from Latin tantum (“so much”).

It is inherited from Latin pulsō (“to push, strike repeatedly, beat”), a frequentative formed on “pulsum”, the supine of pellō (“to set in motion, drive”). “Pellō” rests on a stem “*pel-” also…

It is borrowed from Latin proprius (“one's own, not shared; special; appropriate”). “Proprius” was probably formed from the phrase “prō prīvō” “as a private matter”, from prō and the ablative of…

It is formed from Old French re- + aconter (“to describe, relate”), Old French “aconter” (“Chanson de Roland”) being formed in turn from a- and conter. Bloch and Wartburg note that the repetitive…

It is formed from French re- + fermer. fermer continues Latin firmō (“to make firm, strengthen”), from firmus (“firm”), and first meant “to make firm, fortify”; the sense “to close” appears in the…

It is formed from French re- + emplir. Medieval French usually had “raemplir”, a compound of an older “aemplir”, which “remplir” finally absorbed. “Emplir” comes from a Vulgar Latin “*implire”, for…

It is borrowed from Latin reparō (“to prepare again; to restore, renew”), from re- with iterative force and parō (“to prepare”) (see parer). Réparation (1310) and réparateur (1350) were borrowed…

Its origin is uncertain. The first syllable is the prefix re-; Wartburg (FEW) takes the rest from an unattested Old French verb “*esver” “to wander”, also behind desver (“to lose one's mind”) and…

It is inherited from Old French roge, inherited from Latin rubeus (“reddish, ruddy”), derived from rubeō (“to be red”). “Rubeus” displaced the old word ruber (“red”) in the Romance languages. The…

It is the past participle, used as an adjective, of sacrer “to consecrate”, itself taken in 1138 from Latin sacrō (“to consecrate to a deity; to make sacred”), from sacer (“sacred; accursed”). The…

It is inherited from Old French sol, inherited from Late Latin solidus (“gold coin”) (early 5th century), also in the form soldus, the noun use of the classical adjective Latin solidus (“solid…

It is inherited from Old French sope, inherited from Late Latin suppa (“sopped bread”) (about 500), which also gave Italian zuppa and Spanish sopa. Suppa is of Germanic origin according to Bloch and…

It is inherited from Old French sorrire, inherited from Vulgar Latin *subrīdere, with a short ⟨e⟩, an altered form of classical subrīdeō (“to smile”), formed from sub- (“under”), marking a lessened…

It is borrowed from Latin speciālis (“special, particular; relating to a species”), opposed to generālis (see général), derived from speciēs (“sight; appearance; kind, species”) (see espèce), which…

It is from French sur- + prendre, Old French “sor-” (see sur). Wiktionary notes that Old French distinguished “sorprendre” “to overtake” from “sousprendre” “to catch unawares”, which later merged…

It is borrowed from Latin theātrum (“theatre; audience; stage”), from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “place for viewing”), from θεάομαι (theáomai, “to watch, contemplate”), from θέα (théa, “a…

It continues inherited from Ecclesiastical Latin tumba, used by Prudentius in the 4th century, borrowed from Ancient Greek τύμβος (túmbos, “burial mound; tomb”). The Greek word, which first named…

It is inherited from Old French travail, formed from the verb travailler, from *tripāliō (“to torture”), derived from tripālium, also “trepalium” (582), an instrument of torture, literally “made of…

1. The wave is borrowed from Old Norse vágr (“sea”), according to the FEW, Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert; compare Middle High German wâge and German Woge. Wiktionary traces the Norse word…

It is a diminutive of chape (“cape, hood”) with the suffix “-(er)on”, from Late Latin cappa (“hooded cloak”). Compare Old Occitan capairon and Italian capperone (“rain hood”).

It is inherited from Old French chasse, inherited from Latin capsa (“box, case”), which had the sense “reliquary” in Medieval Latin (about 720) and “coffin” in ecclesiastical Latin. The Petit Robert…

It is inherited from Latin cōlō (“to filter, strain, purify”), from cōlum (“sieve, strainer”), a rustic technical word of obscure origin. Already in Latin the verb had come to mean “to flow” of a…