Old French words from Latin
121 Old French words with Latin in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages (page 2).
fruit
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…
funder
It is inherited from Latin fundō (“to lay the foundation of, build; establish”), a Latin verb formed from fundus (“bottom”). Bloch and Wartburg note that the word stayed in contact with written…
gelee
It is formed from Old French geler + -ee, the verb being from Latin gelō (“to freeze”). The TLF-Étym considers the derivation very old, as Medieval Latin gelāta is already recorded in the Reichenau…
general
It is borrowed from Latin generālis (“belonging to a kind”). The Latin adjective is formed from genus (“birth, kind”) with the suffix -ālis. The DEAF explains the Old French senses “high-born”…
gentil
It is borrowed from Latin gentīlis (“belonging to the same clan”), which is formed from gēns (“clan, tribe”) and -īlis. The DHLF dates the borrowing to about 1050; Bloch and Wartburg give the Latin…
grace
It is borrowed from Latin grātia (“favour; thanks; charm”). The Latin noun is formed from grātus (“pleasing”) with the suffix -ia. The DEAF explains that the Latin word survived as a native word…
honeste
It is borrowed from Latin honestus (“honoured, respectable; honourable”), formed in Latin from honōs (“honour”) with the suffix -tus. The DHLF explains it from an inflection of the noun with the…
honesté
It is borrowed from Latin honestās (“honour, respectability”), from its accusative honestātem. The Latin noun is formed from honestus (“honourable”) with the suffix -tās, and the adjective comes…
hospital
It is borrowed from Late Latin hospitālis (“hospice, shelter, guesthouse”), a learned borrowing, the Late Latin noun being a use of Latin hospitālis (“hospitable”), from hospes (“host, guest”). The…
iaue
It is inherited from Latin aqua (“water”). The Latin word continues Proto-Italic *akwā-, with cognates only in Germanic, Gothic 𐌰𐍈𐌰 (aƕa) and Old High German aha from Proto-Germanic *aχwō, and de…
imperïal
It is borrowed from Late Latin imperiālis (“of the emperor”), from imperium (“command; empire”). The FEW and the DEAF give the same etymon. Körting gives Italian imperiale beside the French word…
instrument
It is borrowed from Latin īnstrūmentum (“furniture, equipment, tools”), derived from īnstruō (“to equip”). The DEAF explains that the Latin word developed regularly into estrument, and that it also…
joie
It is inherited from Latin gaudia (“expressions of joy”), the plural of gaudium (“joy”), taken as a feminine singular. The plural was frequent in familiar Latin, which explains its use in the spoken…
joint
Used as a noun and adjective, it is the past participle from Old French joindre (“to join”), which is from Latin iungō (“to put in the yoke, join”). The Latin participle is iūnctus. The Latin verb…
jornee
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *diurnāta, a Gallo-Romance derivative of diurnum (“day”). The Latin noun is the neuter of diurnus (“of one day”), from diēs (“day”). The FEW files the word under…
lac
It is borrowed from Latin lacus (“tub, basin; lake”). The inherited form of the same Latin word was lai, which had little vitality and was displaced by the borrowing. The FEW and the TLFi allow that…
liberal
It is borrowed from Latin līberālis (“befitting a free man”), from līber (“free”) and the suffix -ālis. The DHLF notes that the Latin adjective, like ingenuus and generōsus, passed from “concerning…
liberte
It is borrowed from Latin lībertās (“freedom, the condition of a free person”). The noun is formed from Latin līber (“free”) + -tās, and continues Old Latin loebertās, from Proto-Italic *louðortāts.
licence
It is borrowed from Latin licentia (“freedom to act, permission”), formed from licēns (“free, unrestrained”) and the suffix -ia, the participle of licet (“it is allowed”). In Late Latin the noun…
lunatique
It is borrowed from Late Latin lūnāticus (“moonstruck, epileptic”), a derivative of lūna (“moon”) with the suffix -āticus. The Latin adjective meant "moonstruck, epileptic" in the Digest and the…
maire
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…
majesté
It is borrowed from Latin maiestās (“greatness, dignity”), a derivative of maior (“greater”), the comparative of magnus (“great”). In Late Latin the word was a title of an emperor, king or pope, in…
merci
It is inherited from Latin mercēs (“wages, reward”), through its accusative. The Latin noun is formed from merx (“merchandise”). In popular Latin it took the sense of price, whence favour, found in…
montaigne
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *montānea (“mountainous region”), the feminine, used as a noun, of a Late Latin adjective montāneus, a variant of montānus (“of the mountains”). Wiktionary gives…
moral
It is borrowed from Latin mōrālis (“relating to manners and conduct”), a learned word. The Latin adjective was formed by Cicero from mōs (“custom, manner”) and -ālis to render Ancient Greek ἠθικός…
motif
It is borrowed from Late Latin mōtīvus (“relating to movement, mobile”), formed on mōtus, the supine of moveō (“to move”). The TLFi dates the Late Latin adjective to the 3rd or 4th century, and…
noble
It is borrowed from Latin nōbilis (“known, famous; well-born”). The Latin adjective is formed from nōscō (“to get to know”) with the suffix -bilis, so that it first meant "knowable", then "well…
noise
Its origin is uncertain. Most sources take it as inherited from Latin nausea (“seasickness, nausea”). The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ναυσία (nausía, “seasickness”), from ναῦς (naûs, “ship”)…
original
It is borrowed from Latin orīginālis (“existing from the beginning, primitive”), a word of imperial Latin derived from orīgō (“origin”). Etymonline traces the Latin noun to orior (“to rise”). The…
paiier
It is inherited from Latin pācō (“to pacify, subdue”), a verb formed from pāx (“peace”). In Latin it meant to impose peace on a land or people. Gamillscheg holds that already in Vulgar Latin it had…
parcial
It is borrowed from Late Latin partiālis (“forming a part”), from pars (“part”). In Medieval Latin the adjective also meant "of one party, factious". Bloch and Wartburg note that the partisan sense…
parent
It is inherited from Latin parentem (“parent”), the accusative of parēns (“father or mother”). The Latin noun was used mostly in the plural for "father and mother", and in imperial and late Latin…
pasté
It is formed from Old French paste (“dough”) + -é, with the suffix that continues Latin -ātum. Gamillscheg thinks it replaced an older word that had been given up because it coincided with the word…
patron
It is borrowed from Latin patrōnus (“protector, patron”), which is formed from pater (“father”) on the model of colōnus. In Medieval Latin the word also meant a feudal lord, the patron of a church…
peine
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”)…
pesche
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pessica, from Late Latin persica (“peach”). The Late Latin noun was the neuter plural of persicum, taken as a feminine singular, and that word was shortened from…
pie
It is inherited from Latin pīca (“magpie, jay”). The Latin word is the feminine of pīcus (“woodpecker”), and the TLFi takes both to be imitative, the masculine and the feminine having served to tell…
piece
It is inherited from Late Latin pettia (“piece”). Medieval Latin texts record it as petia and pecia, first in Merovingian formularies and often for a piece of land, about 730, and for a small piece…
plaisir
It is inherited from Latin placeō (“to be pleasing”), the infinitive of the Latin verb continued regularly in Old French. Wiktionary takes the noun for the infinitive used as a noun, and the DHLF…
plait
It is inherited from Latin placitum (“opinion, decree”), the neuter of placitus, past participle of placeō (“to please”). In classical Latin the plural meant tenets or principles; in the Latin of…
plenté
It is inherited from Latin plēnitās (“fullness”), the abstract noun formed from plēnus (“full”). Wiktionary notes that it matches plein with the suffix -té. The older spelling with a final ⟨-t⟩…
ploiier
It is inherited from Latin plicō (“to fold”). The DHLF calls the Latin verb an intensive formed on the compound element -plicō of verbs such as explicō, beside plectō (“to plait”). Its Romance…
poison
It is inherited from Latin pōtiō (“a drink, draught”), in its accusative pōtiōnem. The Latin noun is derived from the supine of pōtō (“to drink”), a verb that did not survive in the Romance…
poulser
It is inherited from Latin pulsō (“to beat, strike, push”). The Latin verb is a frequentative of pellō (“to drive, strike”), and the DHLF lists its senses as “to jostle, knock”, “to shake”, “to…
preferer
It is borrowed from Latin praeferō (“to carry in front; to prefer”). The Latin verb is formed prae- (“before”) + ferō (“to carry”), continuing Proto-Italic *praiferō; the present stem of the simple…
present
The adjective is borrowed from Latin praesēns (“present, at hand”), the present participle of praesum (“to be before, be at the head”), from prae- (“before”) and sum (“to be”). Wiktionary treats it…
pris
It is inherited from Latin pretium (“price, value, reward”). The DÉRom reconstructs a neuter Proto-Romance noun with cognates in every branch except Vegliote, Friulian and Spanish, among them…
procuratour
It is borrowed from Latin prōcūrātor (“manager, agent, proxy”). The Latin noun is formed prōcūrō (“to manage, administer”) + -tor, and named the governor or administrator of a province, the official…
reformer
It is borrowed from Latin reformō (“to shape again, transform”), according to the DHLF, Gamillscheg and Bloch and Wartburg. The FEW gives the borrowing its own article, with the Old French verb…
relacioun
It is borrowed from Latin relātiō (“a bringing back; a report; a relation”). The Latin noun is formed referō (“to bring back, report”) + -tiō, and had from the 1st century both a legal sense…
removoir
It is inherited from Latin removeō (“to move back, take away”), formed in Latin from re- and moveō (“to move”). Tobler–Lommatzsch refers to the simple verb movoir. The DEAF gives the same etymon.
resister
It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin resistō (“to stand still; to withstand”). The Latin verb is formed from re- and sistō (“to stop, stand”); its first meaning was “to stop, not go further”…
reverser
It is inherited from Late Latin reversō (“to turn round”), a verb formed from Latin re- and versō (“to turn”), which Lewis and Short cite from Augustine's Confessions and the Vulgate. Greimas also…
sauver
It is inherited from Late Latin salvō (“to save”), a Late Latin verb formed on Latin salvus (“safe, unharmed”). Bloch and Wartburg call the Late Latin verb mainly a word of the Church, and the DHLF…
taster
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tastō, a contraction of *taxitō, the frequentative of Latin taxō (“to touch sharply”), itself an intensive of tangō (“to touch”). Its Romance cognates are Italian…
tendre
1. The word for tender is inherited from Latin tener (“soft, delicate”), taken in its accusative form tenerum. The DHLF finds no matching form in any other language and sets aside a link with Greek…
tracier
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tractiō (“to draw a line; to follow a track”), derived from tractus (“a drawing, a track”), from the supine of trahō (“to draw, drag”). Bloch and Wartburg and the…
travailler
It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *tripāliō (“to torture”), a verb formed on Late Latin tripālium (“instrument of torture”). The FEW notes that the noun is recorded as trepalium in the acts of the…
unité
It is borrowed from Latin ūnitās (“oneness, unity”), which is formed from ūnus (“one”) and -tās. Wiktionary calls it a semi-learned borrowing. In Medieval Latin the word also meant the spiritual…
verifier
It is borrowed from Late Latin vērificō (“to present as true”). Gamillscheg calls the source Medieval Latin and dates the French word to the 14th century. The Latin verb, first recorded in the 5th…