French words from Middle Dutch
5 French words with Middle Dutch in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
bar
1. The drinking place is borrowed from English bar, a clipping (1857) of bar-room (in French in 1833), an Anglo-American word for a place where people drink standing at the counter. English itself…
bière
1. The drink is a word of Germanic origin, borrowed from Middle Dutch bier or Middle High German bier; Rey thinks Dutch influence was the stronger, since brewing and hop growing were developed in…
botte
1. The bundle is borrowed from Middle Dutch bote (“bundle of flax”), related to boten (“to beat”), so properly the amount of crop threshed at one time. Bloch and Wartburg think a link with the…
boulevard
It is probably borrowed from Middle Dutch bolwerc (“bulwark, bastion”) rather than the corresponding Middle High German bolwërc, though it may have come by both routes; the early records are from…
mannequin
1. It is borrowed from Middle Dutch mannekijn (“little man; little doll”), formed with the diminutive suffix “-kijn” (English “-kin”, German “-chen”) on “man” “man”, which has cognates in all the…