French words first recorded in the 18th century

1. The association is borrowed from English club, used in that sense since the 17th century. The English word first meant a heavy stick, clubbe (about 1205), from Old Norse klubba, an assimilated…

It is from French commun + -iste. The adjective commun is commūnis (“common, shared”). Its political use belongs with that of commune in 1789 and in 1870, and with communisme, which appeared at the…

It is the feminine of the adjective bon used as a noun, at first as a children's affectionate name for the servant who looked after them. The adjective continues Latin bonus (“good”).

It is from French rat + -er, made after the older phrase “prendre un rat”, said of a firearm that failed to go off. That phrase is found as “prendre rat” in 1651 and as “prendre un rat” in 1668…

It is borrowed from Latin seriēs (“row, chain, unbroken succession; line of descendants”), first used in French as a term of mathematics in 1715. The Latin noun is derived from serō (“to plait, join…

It is the present participle of intéresser used as an adjective. The verb (1356) is formed on intérêt, after Latin interesse (“to be of importance”); The noun itself comes from the Latin impersonal…

It is borrowed from Dutch balg (“sheath, pouch; skin”), with the /al/ turned into /la/ because the group /lg/ was rare in popular French. Rey favours Dutch over another Germanic source because the…

It is the use as a common noun (1721) of the proper name (1568; Lyceon, 1534) of the gymnasium north-east of Athens where Aristotle taught. The name was borrowed from Latin Lyceum, from Ancient…

It is from French bouder + -oir, a jocular formation: properly “a room to sulk in”, where the lady of the house could withdraw to be alone. Bouder “to sulk” (14th century) is an expressive popular…

It is borrowed from Italian bravo (“fine, excellent; brave”), the adjective addressed to a performer one approves of. It spread with the opera of Italy, reaching German and English as well. The…

It is borrowed from German Vampir (recorded from 1732), itself from Serbo-Croatian vampir. The forms “oupire” and “upire” come from Czech upír or Russian упырь (upyrʹ). Rey says that all these words…

It is the use as a common noun of Mentor, the French form of Ancient Greek Μέντωρ (Méntōr), the friend of Odysseus in the “Odyssey” whose likeness Athena took to guide and teach Telemachus. The…

It is borrowed from Italian caricatura (“a loading; a caricature”), derived with the suffix “-ura” from the past participle of caricare (“to load; to exaggerate”), which in the 17th century already…

It is the past participle of blaser used as an adjective. The verb (about 1650; 1608 in Régnier according to Bloch and Wartburg) is a Germanic word of the Picard area, compare Rouchi and Walloon…

It is from French ambulant + -ance, after the older hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”) (1762), earlier hôpital ambulatoire (1637). The adjective ambulant was borrowed in 1558 from Latin ambulāns…

It is formed from mirer (“to look at, (reflexive) to be reflected”) with the suffix -age. The verb is inherited from Vulgar Latin *mīrāre (“to look at attentively”), from classical Latin mīrārī (“to…

It is derived from cabrioler (“to caper”), because of the light carriage's bouncing motion. The verb comes from cabriole (1562, “cabriolle”), earlier “capriole”, borrowed from Italian capriola, from…

It is borrowed from English veranda, also “verandah” (from 1711), a word brought back from India, where several languages, such as Hindi and Bengali, had taken it from Portuguese varanda (“balcony…

It is named after Étienne de Silhouette (1709–1767), controller-general of finances from March to November 1759. His economy measures made him unpopular and mocked in songs, and the phrase “à la…

It is a compound of mélo- (from Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, “song, music”)) and drame, made after Italian melodramma (17th century), a wholly sung drama. Littré gives Greek “melos” “music” and…

Its origin is uncertain. The word belonged mainly to the dialects of eastern France, and Bloch and Wartburg, followed by the TLFi and the GLLF, suggest that it was formed there, perhaps in Lorraine…

It is probably borrowed from Occitan charrado (“chat, conversation”) (Provençal), a derivative of Occitan charrá (“to chat, chatter”), an imitative word related to Italian ciarlare (“to prattle”)…

It is derived from coin “wedge” with a verb ending. The noun continues Latin cuneus (“wedge”). Littré compares a Lorraine dialect verb of the same form, “to hold in a corner, drive into a corner”.

It is borrowed from English dollar, the American English name of the monetary unit of the United States. English had earlier used “daller”, “doller” in the 16th century for the thaler, from Low…

It was coined by Lavoisier from oxy- (“acid”), from Ancient Greek ὀξύς (oxús, “sharp, sour, acid”), and -gène (“producing”), from the root of γένος (génos, “birth”) or γεννάω (gennáō, “to produce”)…

It is from French para- (“guarding against”) + chute (“fall”), formed on the model of parasol and parapluie. Littré analyses it as “parer à chute”.

It is formed from the name of the physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), who in 1789 urged the use of a beheading machine to shorten the sufferings of the condemned. The machine itself was…

1. The unit is borrowed from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”), adopted by a law of 26 March 1791 during the work on the metric system. Late Latin metrum already meant a measuring instrument…

It is from French utile + -iser. utile is borrowed from Latin ūtilis (“useful”). Wiktionary also suggests Italian utilizzare as a model.

The origin is disputed. Rey and Bloch and Wartburg take it as a French nursery formation, of onomatopoeic origin, related to dialect words such as “babi” (Bas-Maine), “bibi” (Picardy, Centre) and…

It is formed from French kilo- + mètre, one of the names coined for the metric system. Kilo- was taken from Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi, “thousand”), and mètre was borrowed in 1791 from Ancient…

Its origin is unknown. The Petit Robert, the GLLF and Wiktionary suggest an alteration of slang gonze “man, fellow”, which the TLFi rejects for reasons of sound and sense. The TLFi also rejects a…

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek χρῶμα (khrôma, “colour of the skin; colour; ornament of style; chromatic music”), through Latin chrōma according to Rey and the Petit Robert, derived from χρώς…