500–401 BC

Old French words from Latin words first recorded in the 5th century BC

3 Old French words inherited from a Latin word whose earliest known written record dates from the 5th century BC, earliest Latin record first.

1. fruit

   451 BC–450 BC

   from Latin fructus

   It is inherited from Latin frūctus (“enjoyment; produce, fruit”), which in Late Latin passed from the fourth declension to the second. The Latin noun is formed on fruor (“to enjoy”) with the suffix…

2. maire

   451 BC–450 BC

   from Latin maior

   It is inherited from Latin maior (“greater”), the comparative of magnus (“great”). The nominative continues the Latin nominative, while the oblique maieur continues the accusative maiōrem, but the…

3. peine

   451 BC–450 BC

   from Latin poena

   It is inherited from Latin poena (“penalty, punishment”). Gamillscheg describes its development as semi-learned. Latin had borrowed the word from Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ, “blood-money, penalty”)…

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