French words first recorded in the 9th century

It is inherited from Old French sostenir, inherited from Vulgar Latin *sustenīre, an alteration of classical Latin sustineō (“to hold up; to endure”), remade after “*tenire” (see tenir); the Latin…

It is inherited from Old French venir, inherited from Latin veniō (“to come; to arrive; to fall to; to reach”). The Latin verb meant “to move so as to reach a place (where a person is)”, and also…

It is inherited from Old French argent, inherited from Latin argentum (“silver; money”). The Latin word is related to a stem meaning “brightness, whiteness” seen in arguō, originally “to make…

It is inherited from Old French avoir, inherited from Latin habeō (“to have, hold, possess”). The Latin verb meant at first “to hold, occupy” and “to dwell”, like its derivative habitō (whence…

It is inherited from Old French bel, inherited from Latin bellus (“pretty, charming”). “Bellus”, a familiar diminutive of bonus (“good”) (old “duenos”), was used in classical Latin of women and…

It is inherited from Old French bon, inherited from Latin bonus (“good; fitting; brave”). The Latin word was used in formulas of politeness and, familiarly, for “great” (“bona pars” “a good part”)…

It is inherited from Latin caelum (“vault of the sky; abode of the gods; vault, ceiling”), written “celum” and “coelum” in Late Latin. The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: it has been linked…

It is inherited from Old French cors, inherited from Latin corpus (“body”) (genitive “corporis”). Rey calls the Latin word one of an obscure group, perhaps an extension of a stem “*krp-” found in…

It is inherited from Old French colp, inherited from Late Latin colpus (“blow”) (Salic Law), a popular syncopated form of Latin colaphus (“blow with the fist, cuff”), which transcribes Ancient Greek…

It is a very early, semi-learned borrowing from Christian Latin borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin diabolus (“devil”), from Church Greek Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos), in classical Greek…

It is a very early borrowing borrowed from Latin elementum, “one of the four elements”, used mostly in the plural for first principles, rudiments, and the letters of the alphabet. The Grand Robert…

It is inherited from Old French ele, inherited from Latin illa (“that one (feminine)”), the feminine of the demonstrative “ille” “that”. Rey connects “ille” with an Indo-European base with “l” for a…

1. The noun “fire” is inherited from Old French fu, inherited from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”), which already in imperial Latin was used for “fire” and displaced ignis (“fire”) (see igné). In…

It is borrowed from Latin figūra (“shape, form; image; figure of speech; manner”), formed on the stem of fingō (“to shape in clay”), whose inherited French outcome is feindre. The Petit Robert…

It is inherited from Old French grant, inherited from Latin grandis (“big, large; advanced in age, (of style) lofty”). “Grandis”, which has no known origin, was more common in spoken Latin than…

It is inherited from Old French jeter, inherited from Vulgar Latin *iectō, an altered form of classical iactō (“to throw, toss”), after compounds such as iniectō, the frequentative of iaciō (“to…

It is inherited from Old French laissier, inherited from Latin laxō (“to loosen, slacken; to release; to leave”), from laxus (“loose, slack”). Besides “to loosen, release”, the Latin verb meant “to…

It is inherited from Old French le, inherited from Latin ille (“that”), from the accusative forms illum, “illam”, “illōs”, “illās”, with the loss of the first syllable because these words were…

It is inherited from Old French lui, inherited from Late Latin illuī, a remaking of illī (“to that one”), the dative of the demonstrative “ille”, under the influence of cui, the dative of the…

It continues inherited from Latin malus (“bad, harmful, wicked”) and the corresponding adverb male (“badly”), which both gave “mal”. The origin of the noun is disputed: the Grand Robert derives it…

It is inherited from Old French mercit, inherited from Latin mercēs (“wages, reward; price, (Late Latin) favour, mercy”), accusative “mercēdem”. The Latin word meant “wages, reward, pay, interest”…

It is inherited from Old French mestier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *misterium, from Latin ministerium (“office of a servant, service, function”), from minister (“servant”). The shorter Vulgar…

It is inherited from Old French mielz, inherited from Latin melius (“better”), the neuter of melior (“better”) used as an adverb, the comparative of bene (“well”). It is related to meilleur. Cognate…

1. The noun “death” is inherited from Old French mort, inherited from Latin mors (“death; capital punishment”), accusative “mortem”. Like the verb “morī” (see mourir), it goes back to the…

It is inherited from Old French morir, inherited from Latin morior (“to die”), whose classical infinitive “morī” had a variant “morīrī” in early and popular Latin (Plautus), which became “morīre” in…

It is inherited from Old French nos, inherited from Latin nōs (“we, us”), the first person plural pronoun, stressed and unstressed. “Nous” is the form that developed in unstressed position, the only…

1. Gold is inherited from Latin aurum (“gold; gold object; gold coin; wealth”). The /r/ of the Latin word comes from an older /s/, as shown by Sabine “ausom”, Old Prussian ausis and Lithuanian…

It is inherited from Old French preier, inherited from Late Latin precāre (6th century), from classical Latin precārī (“to pray, entreat”), a derivative of prex (“request, prayer”). The Latin noun…

It is inherited from Old French siecle, earlier “secle”, a form remade after Latin of the popular “seule” (881), inherited from Latin saeculum (“generation; age; century; in Church Latin, the…

1. The preposition is inherited from Old French sor, inherited from Latin super (“above, over; upon”), altered by crossing with sus. The oldest forms, “sobre” and “sore”, come from suprā (“above…

It is inherited from Old French tost, inherited from Vulgar Latin *tostum, the neuter used as an adverb of tostus (“parched, roasted, burnt”), past participle of torreō (“to parch, roast”). The…

It is inherited from Old French tot, inherited from Vulgar Latin tōttus, with an expressive doubled ⟨tt⟩, recorded in Late Latin, an alteration of Classical Latin tōtus (“whole, entire”). In popular…

It is inherited from Old French voleir, inherited from Vulgar Latin *volēre, formed on the stem of Classical Latin forms of velle (“to want”) such as volō (“I want”), “volēbam” and “voluī”, and…

It is inherited from Old French achater, inherited from Vulgar Latin *accaptō (“to take to oneself; to acquire”), formed from ad- and captō (“to try to seize”) (see capter). Some take “*accaptāre”…

It is inherited from Old French aprés, inherited from Late Latin ad pressum (“near, close by”), formed from ad (“to, at”) and “pressum”, the neuter of pressus (“pressed, close”), past participle of…

It is inherited from Old French bien, inherited from Latin bene (“well”), the adverb corresponding to bonus (“good”) (whence bon), opposed like the French word to male (whence mal). In familiar…

It is inherited from Old French boivre, inherited from Latin bibō (“to drink; to soak up”). The Latin verb, which almost entirely displaced its synonym pōtō (“to drink”) (see potable, poison)…

1. The conjunction is inherited from Old French car, inherited from Latin quārē (“why?; therefore”), literally “by which thing”, from quā and rē, the ablatives of quī and rēs (“thing”). Latin…

It is inherited from Latin cantō (“to sing”), a frequentative of canō (“to sing; to prophesy”) that very early competed with the simple verb and took its place. “Canere” was a word of augury and…

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *commandare, a remaking after Latin mandō (“to entrust, enjoin”) of classical commendō (“to entrust; to recommend; to command”), from com- and “mandare”. Classical…

It is inherited from Old French comencier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *cominitiō, from cum (“with”) and initiō (“to initiate; to begin”). Latin “initiāre”, from initium (“beginning”), passed in the…

It is inherited from Old French esclairer, inherited from Vulgar Latin *exclāriō, from Latin exclārō (“to light up”), formed with ex- and clārō (“to make bright”), from clārus (“clear, bright”), the…

It is inherited from Latin frūctus (“enjoyment; produce, revenue; fruits of the earth”), from fruor (“to enjoy, have the use of”); the TLFi calls it a borrowing. Its abstract sense was kept alive by…

It is inherited from Old French metre, inherited from Latin mittō (“to let go, release; to throw; to send”). Rey describes the Latin verb as an expressive word with a double consonant and no sure…

It is inherited from Old French mostrer, inherited from Latin mōnstrō (“to show, point out; to advise”), derived from mōnstrum (“portent, divine sign”) (see monstre). The ⟨n⟩ was restored after the…

It is inherited from Old French quant, inherited from Latin quandō (“when”), an adverb and conjunction which, from the oldest texts, has the same sense as cum (“when”). Classical Latin partly…

1. The verb “to rest” is inherited from Late Latin repausō (“to calm; to rest”) (4th century), from the intensive re- and Late Latin pausō (“to cease, stop”) (see poser), from pausa (“stop, pause”)…

It is inherited from Old French tei, inherited from Latin tē (“you”), the accusative of tū, in stressed position; unstressed, the same Latin form gave te. Littré explains the difference between…

It is inherited from Old French vos, inherited from Latin vōs (“you (plural)”). Bloch and Wartburg note that “vous” is the form that developed in unstressed position, and that it is the only one…