French words first recorded in the 12th century

It is borrowed from Latin terminō (“to mark the boundary of, limit; to end, finish”), from terminus (“boundary, limit”) (whence terme). Wiktionary takes the Old French verb as a borrowing inherited…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *terrānum, with a change of suffix from Latin terrēnum (“ground, soil”), the neuter used as a noun of “terrēnus” “of earth”, from Latin terra (“earth”) (see terre)…

It is the past participle of venir, used as an adjective and a noun. The verb continues Latin veniō (“to come”).

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *virāre, an alteration of classical Latin vibrāre (“to shake, brandish, hurl”) with the labials dissimilated, the short “i” made long under the influence…

It is borrowed from Latin accidēns (“chance event; misfortune, (philosophy) accident”), the present participle of accidō (“to fall upon; to happen”) used as a noun, from ad- and cadō (“to fall”)…

It is a back-formation from accorder, Old French acorder. The verb continues Vulgar Latin *accordō, formed with ad- after concordō (“to agree”) and discordō, from cor (“heart”). The musical sense of…

It is from French agréer + -able. The verb agréer (1138), “to find to one's liking”, is formed on gré, from Latin grātum, the neuter of grātus (“pleasing”) used as a noun. Compare Old Occitan…

It is the feminine past participle of aller used as a noun. Du Cange explained the word as a wrong division of ⟨la lée⟩, ⟨lée⟩ being an old word for a ride through a forest, but Littré rejected…

It is formed from long with the prefix a- and a verbal ending. Wiktionary mentions as possible Vulgar Latin *allongāre, listed by Meyer-Lübke, beside Late Latin ēlongō (“to lengthen”). The adjective…

It is the present participle, used as a noun, of amer, the old form of aimer, which continues Latin amō (“to love”). Wiktionary instead treats it as borrowed from the Latin present participle amāns…

It is borrowed from Latin anniversārius (“returning every year, annual”), a compound of annus (“year”) (see an) and the past participle of vertō (“to turn”) (see version), literally “where the year…

It is from French a- + ranger (“to put in rows, arrange”), from rang. “Rang” (Old French “renc”) is from Frankish *hring (“circle, ring”) (compare German Ring), which Bloch and Wartburg think came…

It is from French autre + fois, literally “another time”. fois continues Latin vicēs (“turns, successions”). Littré points out that, from this literal sense, Old French used it of the future as well…

1. The lawyer is borrowed from Latin advocātus (“one called to assist; legal adviser”), from advocō (“to call to one's aid”) (see avouer), from ad- and vocō (“to call”), from vōx (“voice”). In Latin…

It is inherited from Old French boteille, inherited from Vulgar Latin *butticula (“buticula”, attested in the Carolingian period), a diminutive of Late Latin buttis (“cask, wineskin”) (6th century)…

It is formed from bouter (“to push, thrust”), as is bout, the bud being what the plant pushes out, as “pousse” is from “pousser”. The verb is from Frankish *bōtan (“to strike, push”), compare Old…

It is inherited from Latin circulus (“circle; ring; hoop”), a diminutive of circus (“circle; circus”) that partly took over its senses. The Latin word already had most of the French senses: a…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *certānus, derived from classical Latin certus (“settled, fixed; sure”) (see certes), the past participle used as an adjective of cernō (“to sift; to discern…

It is inherited from Old French changier, inherited from Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange, barter”), recorded from Apuleius on beside cambīre. The Latin verb was a trade word, probably of Gaulish…

It is inherited from Old French chapitel, inherited from Late Latin capitellum, a diminutive of Latin caput (“head; top”) used in Late Latin as a term of architecture for the widened top of a…

It is inherited from Late Latin cattus (“cat”), a late Latin word first found in the 4th century (Palladius), with a feminine “catta”. It replaced fēlēs (see félin), which also meant the wild cat…

It is inherited from Latin cuneus (“wedge for splitting wood”). In Latin it was already used of anything wedge-shaped, and in Medieval Latin (1099) of the die for striking coins. Rey calls it a…

It is borrowed from Latin conversātiō (“frequenting, dealings, intimacy”), from the supine of conversor (“to associate with”) (see converser). Cognate with Italian conversazione and Spanish…

It is inherited from Old French coste, inherited from Latin costa (“rib; side, flank; ridge”). The senses “slope of a hill” and “seashore” are found in Romanian, Italian, Catalan, Spanish and…

It is derived with the suffix -ée from cuir “hide”, because the portion given to the hounds was spread on the skin of the slain animal; the Livre du roi Modus describes the meat being cut up and…

It is inherited from Old French dangier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *dominiārium (“power, dominion”), also *domnārium, from Latin dominus (“lord, master”). In northern Gaul the word was used for…

1. The verb meaning “to depend” is borrowed from Latin dēpendeō (“to hang from; to be attached to; to be under the influence of”), from dē (“down from”) and pendeō (“to hang”) (see pendre)…

It is a deverbal noun from French destiner. That verb is from Latin dēstinō (“to fix, make fast; to determine”), which until the 17th century also meant “to decide, plan” in French. Compare Old…

It is borrowed from Latin differentia (“difference; distinguishing character”), first as “diferance”. The Latin noun comes from differēns, present participle of differō (“to carry in different…

The TLFi and Rey take it as formed in Old French from changer with the prefix é- (Latin ex-). Bloch and Wartburg and Wiktionary instead see inherited from Vulgar Latin *excambiō, whose existence…

It was formed on “esmeu”, the old past participle of émouvoir, after meute in its old sense “uprising, expedition, movement”. “Émouvoir” is Vulgar Latin “*exmovēre”, from classical Latin ēmovēre…

It is formed from French en- + traîner. “Traîner” goes back to Vulgar Latin *tragīnō, formed on a variant of Latin trahō (“to pull, drag”). The sporting sense “to train” (1828) was formed under the…

It is borrowed from Latin spatium (“racecourse, arena; open space, extent; interval of time”), a word of obscure origin. Compare Occitan espaci, Spanish espacio and Italian spazio.

It is inherited from Old French fet, inherited from Latin factum (“deed, act”), the neuter past participle of faciō (“to do, make”) used as a noun. It is thus the same word as the past participle…

It is inherited from Old French faillir (“to fail, be lacking”), remade after its third person singular “il faut” (earlier “falt”), on the model of valoir. “Faillir” comes from popular inherited…

It is inherited from Old French fantosme, from a southern Vulgar Latin *fantauma that came from the Greek of Marseille. The TLFi and the FEW start from Ancient Greek *phantagma, an Ionic form…

It is inherited from Latin fīlum (“thread, filament; edge of a blade; thread of a speech”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Romanian fir, Italian filo, Occitan fil, Spanish hilo and Portuguese fio.

It is inherited from Old French glace, inherited from Late Latin glacia, a late form of classical Latin glaciēs (“ice; hardness, rigidity”). Rey calls the formation of the Latin word unclear; some…

It is borrowed from Latin horror (“bristling; shuddering; dread; religious awe”), derived from horreō (“to bristle; to shudder”) (see horripiler), of obscure origin. Wiktionary notes that the reason…

It is borrowed from Latin humānus (“of man, human; civilized; kind”). Rey, after Ernout and Meillet, notes that “humānus” corresponds exactly in sense to homō (“man, human being”) but is independent…

The word has a complex history. It goes back to Late Latin zēlōsus (“full of love and care”), recorded in the 5th or 6th century, derived from zēlus (“zeal; emulation, jealousy”), the source of…

It is probably inherited from Old French lort, inherited from Late Latin lurdus, an alteration of lūridus (“sallow, wan, lurid”). The popular form “lurdus” is attested in the glosses of Rabanus…

It is inherited from Old French moeble, inherited from Latin mōbilis (“that can be moved; changeable”), whose long ⟨o⟩ became short in popular Latin under the influence of moveō (“to move”). In…

The TLFi and Rey derive it, with the suffix -on, from an expressive stem “mign-” that originally expressed sweetness and grace, distinct from the stem of minet “cat”. Rey mentions and rejects as…

1. The page of a book is borrowed from Latin pāgina (“leaf, page”). Littré connected the Latin word with pangō (“to fasten”), first a plate or a thing fixed. Old Walloon and Old Picard had “pagene”…

It is inherited from Medieval Latin parricus (“enclosure”), found in the 8th century in the Ripuarian law. Rey and Bloch and Wartburg derive ⟨parricus⟩ from a pre-Latin *parra (“pole, stake”), kept…

It is inherited from Old French porsivre, inherited from Late Latin prōsequor (“to follow, accompany; to prosecute (a case)”), reshaped after pour and suivre. The Late Latin verb is found in the 6th…

It is inherited from Latin pressāre (“to press”), a word avoided by classical prose but used by Plautus and the Augustan poets; it is an intensive formed on pressum, the supine of premō (“to press…

It is a back-formation from French prouver, made on the old stressed forms of the verb (“il prueve”), the verb being from Latin probō (“to test; to approve; to prove”). Littré and Wiktionary also…

It is from French rang + -er. The related dérangier (late 11th century) suggests that the simple verb is older than its first record. rang, first renc, continues from Frankish *hring (“circle…

It is from French re- + couvrir. The verb couvrir continues Latin cooperiō (“to cover completely”), formed on operiō (“to cover”); the Romance languages all dropped the simple verb in favour of the…

It is from French re- + envoyer, marking a return to an earlier state. The base verb continues Late Latin inviō (“to travel”), which must have taken the sense “to send” early on.

It is the feminine past participle, used as a noun, of the old verb resourdre (“to rise again; to recover”) (late 10th century “resurdre” “to rise from the dead”), from Latin resurgō (“to rise…

It is from French re- + tirer (“to pull”). Rey notes that its frequency and many senses have partly obscured the link with “tirer”. Littré points out that the prefix means “again” in some uses and…

It is from Old French roele (“small wheel”), also “ruele”, the old form of rouelle, and in some senses from rôle “roll”; the GLLF finds the distinction often specious. “Roele” continues Late Latin…

It is inherited from Old French rubis, the plural, taken as a singular, of rubi, earlier robin, rubin, borrowed from Medieval Latin rubīnus (“red precious stone”), a derivative of Latin rubeus…

It is borrowed from Frankish *salo (“murky, dull, dirty”). The Germanic word is represented by Old High German salo (“murky, dull”), Middle High German “sal” and Old English salu (“dark, dusky”)…

It is inherited from Old French sorcier, inherited from Late Latin sortiārius (“teller of lots, fortune-teller”), recorded in Hincmar of Reims (860) and, as sorcerius, in the Reichenau Glosses of…

It is a deverbal noun formed from souffler. The verb continues Latin sufflō (“to blow on, blow up”), from sub- and flō (“to blow”).

It is borrowed from Latin superior (“higher; earlier; stronger, superior”), remade in 1530 from the Old French form. The Latin word is the comparative of superus (“that is above”), from super…