French words first recorded in the 17th century

It is borrowed from Italian complimento (“act or expression of homage”) (1578–1594, Tasso), itself from Spanish cumplimiento, “abundance” in the 13th century and “compliment” in the 16th, derived…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin scorbūtus, a medical term (from 1557), probably formed from an unattested Middle Dutch *scōrbut, modern Dutch scheurbuik, supposed from Middle Low German schorbuk…

It is borrowed from Portuguese feitiço (“charm, amulet; artificial”) (from the 15th century), first through a translation from Dutch, from Latin factīcius (“artificial”), the source of factice…

The origin is uncertain. The usual explanation makes it a compound of sale “dirty” and hoppe, a dialect form of huppe “hoopoe”, a bird thought to be very dirty; regional sayings such as “sale comme…

It is borrowed from Italian chiosco (1594), from Ottoman Turkish كوشك (köşk, “garden pavilion”), itself from Persian کوشک (kōšk, “palace; portico”). Wiktionary traces the Persian word back to Middle…

It is borrowed from scholastic Latin Medieval Latin identificāre (“to make alike”), recorded about 1300 in England, from Latin idem (“the same”) and Latin facere (“to make”) (see identique…

It is borrowed from Franco-Provençal avalanche, a word of Savoy recorded at Fribourg in 1487, which is the Alpine lavantse reshaped after avaler “to go down” (as in aval “downstream”). The Alpine…

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Middle French censer (“to think, reckon; to censure, reform”), a verb borrowed from Latin cēnseō (“to assess property and rank; to estimate…

It is borrowed from Italian granito, recorded in the modern sense from the late 15th century, the adjective “granito” “grainy” used as a noun, properly the past participle of granire (“to form…

It is from French police + -ier. That noun was borrowed in the 14th century from Late Latin politia (“organisation of a state, administration”), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía, “citizenship…

It is formed from French rapide + -ment. It took the place of Old and Middle French radement, recorded from about 1225 and formed on rade, the inherited popular counterpart of rapide. The adjective…

It comes from the old phrase “la fable du ricochet” (13th century), a jingle of endless questions and answers, revived at the Renaissance as “la chanson du ricochet” (Des Périers 1538, Rabelais), an…

It is borrowed from Late Latin magnēticus (“of the magnet”), from Latin magnēs (“magnet”) (“magnes lapis”), an adaptation of Ancient Greek μάγνης (mágnēs) (“magnês lithos”), the stone of Magnesia…

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐποχή (epokhḗ, “stop, pause; period, era”), in astronomy the apparent halt of a star at its apogee. The Greek noun comes from ἐπέχω (epékhō…

In its modern sense it is borrowed from English antelope (1607 in this sense), itself borrowed from Old French antelop, the name of a fabulous animal, from Medieval Latin anthalopus (11th century)…

The origin is very obscure, and many explanations have been proposed. As the word first named the brotherhood of beggars and thieves, not their language, the source must be sought in that sense…

It is a deverbal noun from French retarder, and replaced retardement. “Retarder” is from Latin retardō (“to delay”), Old French also had “retargier” until the 16th century (see tarder).

It is borrowed from Latin minusculus (“rather small, smallish”), taken to give majuscule an opposite. The Latin word is a diminutive of minor (“smaller, less”), the comparative of parvus (“small”)…

In its modern sense it is borrowed from English missile (1945), itself from Latin missile (“missile weapon”), the neuter of missilis (“that can be thrown”), from mittō (“to send, throw”). Rey notes…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin secunda (“second”), short for “minūta secunda”, literally “the minute of the second rank”, the feminine of secundus (“second”) with minūta (“small part, minute”)…

It is borrowed from Italian attitudine (“posture; aptitude”), attested in Leonardo da Vinci. The Italian word is from Late Latin aptitūdō (“aptitude”) (whence aptitude), from Latin aptus (“fit”)…

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐπεισόδιον (epeisódion, “addition; part of a play between choral songs”), the neuter of ἐπεισόδιος (epeisódios, “coming in besides”), from ἐπείσοδος (epeísodos…

It is borrowed from Italian bomba, found in Medieval Latin for an incendiary dart (about 1452) and later for an explosive device. The Italian word is either an independent imitative formation or…

It is borrowed from Italian costume (“custom”) (about 1260), which in the 16th century had taken the narrow artistic sense “the way of showing the age, rank and period of figures”. The Italian word…

1. It is formed from croquer (“to crunch”) with the suffix “-et”. 2. It is borrowed from English croquet (about 1855), which comes either from a Norman-Picard form of crochet (“hook”) (see croc), as…

It is the noun of débuter, from “dé-” and but (“target, mark”). The verb (1547) seems to have meant first “to move” and, in games, “to knock (another player's ball) away from the target” (1549)…

It is a nasalised form of laper (“to lap”), itself of imitative origin. Rey thinks the word was influenced by lampe, used slightly later for the stomach that receives a liquid (s'en mettre plein la…

It is borrowed from Spanish alcoba, from Arabic القبة (al-qubba, “the dome, vaulted room”), with the Arabic article ال (al-). The Spanish word meant a place for public weighing (1202), then a dome…

It came through Dutch, about 1610, from a southern Chinese or Malay word: Wiktionary gives borrowed from Dutch thee, from Hokkien 茶 (tê); Rey and the Grand Robert give the Malay teh or a southern…

It is a shortened form of cela, influenced by the adverb of place çà “here”. “Cela” itself is a compound of ce and là, first found as “çoula” in the 13th century and as “cela” in 1389; it was…

It is the same word as the ethnic name Cravate “Croat”, recorded from 1573 as an adjective and later replaced by croate. Cravate is an adaptation either of Slavic Serbo-Croatian Hrvat (“Croat”) or…

It is a Germanic word, probably brought by mercenaries serving in French armies in the 17th century. The Grand Robert, the Petit Robert, the GLLF and the Académie give it as borrowed from Alemannic…

It is borrowed from Italian salone (“large hall”), the augmentative of sala (“hall”), which the TLFi and the Académie take from French salle; Wiktionary takes sala from Lombardic sala. Both go back…

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve), from Arabic قهوة (qahwa), a word which, according to Littré and Devic, named the drink rather than the bean, and had long been a name of wine. Rey…

It is borrowed from English committee. The English word was first a legal term meaning a person to whom something is entrusted (1495), then a political one (1621), a small number of chosen people…

It is a deverbal noun from French élever (“to raise, bring up”), modelled on the corresponding Italian allievo (“pupil”), recorded from the late 15th century.

It is borrowed from Italian nepotismo, recorded in Italian only from 1672, derived from nepote (“nephew”) (Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF write “nipotismo”, “nipote”), from Latin nepōs (“grandson…

It comes, through the title New Latin Anecdota, from Greek ἀνέκδοτα (anékdota, “unpublished things”), the name of Procopius's secret history of Justinian's court; Wiktionary treats it as a learned…

It is from French boucan + -ier, from boucan, the wooden grill on which the Indians of Brazil and the Caribbean smoked meat and fish. Boucan was borrowed in 1578, in Jean de Léry's account of his…

It is an exclamation, a variant of ô; the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert relate it to Latin oh, which, like Latin “ō”, expressed the most varied feelings. Bloch and Wartburg call it onomatopoeic…

It is the present participle of commander used as a noun. That verb continues Vulgar Latin *commandō, a remaking of commendō (“to entrust, commend”) after mandō (“to hand over, order”); since Caesar…

It is an onomatopoeia. Bloch and Wartburg date it to 1668 and add that it is obviously older.

It is borrowed from Italian filigrana (17th century, Magalotti), a compound of “fili”, plural of “filo” “thread” (from Latin fīlum, see fil), and “grana” “grains” (from Latin grānum, see grain)…

It is borrowed from English flibutor (late 16th century), also “frebetter”, modern freebooter, taken over in the Antilles, itself from Dutch vrijbuiter (“plunderer”), literally “one who takes booty…

It is borrowed from Italian gruppo (“knot; group of figures”) (also “groppo”), attested in Leonardo da Vinci for a group of figures in a work of art, whose first sense must have been “knot”, compare…

Used as an adjective and a noun, it is the past participle from French chérir (“to cherish”). “Chérir” is formed on cher (“dear”) with the verb ending “-ir”.

It is a back-formation from the country name Russie, the name of the empire of the tsars; it replaced the older moscovite. “Russie” was taken from Russian Россия (Rossija), from the Slavic name Old…

It is a deverbal noun from French rêver (“to dream”). The verb, Old French resver (about 1130), is of uncertain origin. Wartburg takes it from an unrecorded “*esver” “to wander” (also behind Old…

In its first senses it is borrowed from English romantic (recorded from 1650–1654), which describes what belongs to the romance and appeals to the imagination; the English word was formed on romant…

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πρόγραμμα (prógramma, “public notice, order of the day”), from πρό (pró, “before”) and γράμμα (grámma, “what is written”), literally “what is written beforehand”…

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin armistitium (“a halt of arms”) (1335), a diplomatic Latin word, formed from Latin arma (“weapons”) and an element related to statiō (“standing still”) or sistō…

It is borrowed from Italian cantina (“cellar, wine store”) (from the second half of the 13th century), a derivative of canto (“corner”), hence “out-of-the-way corner, store room”; it belongs to the…

It is the noun of débâcler (“to unbar; to clear”) (1416), from “dé-” and bâcler (“to bar (a door)”), which Bloch and Wartburg take from Old Occitan “baclar” and Vulgar Latin *bacculāre, from…

It is borrowed from Latin technicus (“master of an art”), from Ancient Greek τεχνικός (tekhnikós, “of an art; skilful”), from τέχνη (tékhnē, “art, craft, skill”); the TLFi takes it straight from…

It is borrowed from Spanish cigarro (about 1610), whose origin is uncertain. Bloch and Wartburg, the FEW and the REW take it from a Maya verb Yucatec Maya zicar (“to smoke”); others from cigarra…

1. The station is a deverbal noun from garer “to moor, shelter (a boat)”. The verb was at first a seafaring word, found inland only from the 15th century (1415, Middle French guerrer (“to moor a…

It is borrowed from English roast beef (also “roastbeef”), adapted, formed in 1635 from roast (“roasted”), from Old French “rostir” (see rôtir), and beef, from Old French “boef” through Anglo-Norman…

It is short for “vin de Champagne”, wine of Champagne, the province, whose name is inherited from Late Latin campānia (“plain, open country”), used as a place name in Late Latin “Campania Remensis”…

It is borrowed from Arabic غول (ġūl, “a demon that devours people”), often feminine, first known in France through d'Herbelot's “Bibliothèque orientale” (1697) and Galland's translation of the…

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀκουστικός (akoustikós, “of hearing”), from ἀκούω (akoúō, “to hear”); the word was proposed by the mathematician and physicist Joseph Sauveur (1653–1716)…