Dutch words from French
22 Dutch words with French in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
agent
It is borrowed from French agent (“representative, agent”), from Latin agēns (“acting; one who acts”), the present participle of agō (“to do, act”). French had the noun by 1332, from Italian agente…
auto
It is borrowed from French auto, a shortening of automobile. The French word was first an adjective “self-propelled” (1861) and was used as a noun only as a shortening of voiture automobile…
fijn
It is inherited from Middle Dutch fijn, borrowed from Old French fin (“perfect, pure”), a word said mostly of precious metals. That adjective comes from Latin fīnis (“end, limit”), in the sense “at…
foto
It is a shortening of the older photographie “photograph”, borrowed from French photographie. The French word first meant the making of a picture by light (1834) and then the picture itself (1854)…
fout
It is inherited from Middle Dutch faute, borrowed from Old French faute (“sin against religious or moral rules; adultery”). The French word developed from Vulgar Latin *fallita, the feminine noun…
idee
It is inherited from Middle Dutch idee, borrowed from Old French idee, from Latin idea (“idea, archetype”), from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “appearance, form, notion”). French had the word from 1119…
juist
It is inherited from Middle Dutch juust, borrowed from Old French juste (“exact, right”), from Latin iūstus (“just, righteous”), a derivative of iūs (“right, law”). The French adjective meant…
kans
It is inherited from Middle Dutch canse, borrowed from Old French cance, the Picard form of what became standard chance, from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“a throw at knucklebones; a fall”), a derivative…
kant
It is inherited from Middle Dutch cant, borrowed from Old French cant (“side, edge”), the northern French form of the word that is ⟨chant⟩ in central Old French. The Old French word probably comes…
luister
It is borrowed from French lustre (“shine, splendour”), which came into Dutch in the 16th century. The French noun, recorded from 1482, is from Italian lustro (“gleam; glory”), formed from the verb…
manier
It is inherited from Middle Dutch maniere, borrowed from Old French maniere (“way of acting”) (modern French manière, from about 1119). The French noun is the feminine of the Old French adjective…
mijn
1. The possessive “my” is inherited from Middle Dutch mijn, inherited from Old Dutch mīn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *mīn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *mīna-. It was originally the…
minuut
It is inherited from Middle Dutch minute, borrowed from Middle French minute, borrowed from Medieval Latin minūta (“unit of time”) (the Philippa dictionary leaves open whether French was the…
net
1. The noun is inherited from Middle Dutch nette, inherited from Old Dutch *netti, inherited from Proto-Germanic *natją (“net”). The same word is Old Saxon netti, Old High German nezzi (modern…
orde
It is inherited from Middle Dutch ordene, borrowed from Old French ordene and also taken directly from Latin ōrdō (“row, series; order, rank”), whose stem appears in the oblique case ōrdinem. Franck…
pas
The noun is inherited from Middle Dutch pas, borrowed from Old French pas (“step”), Latin passus (“step, pace”), literally the spreading of the legs, from the past participle of Latin pandō (“to…
plaats
It is inherited from Middle Dutch plaetse, borrowed from Old French place (“place, open space”), with ⟨ts⟩ showing that the word came through the Picard form plache. The French word comes from…
plan
It is borrowed from French plan (“ground plan; design”), recorded in Dutch from 1674. According to the Philippa dictionary, the French word arose in the 16th century as a variant of plant (“ground…
politie
It is inherited from Middle Dutch policie, borrowed from Middle French policie, an old variant of French police, with the modern sense taken again from French at the end of the 18th century. The…
precies
It is borrowed from Middle French precis (“exact, precise”) (modern French précis, recorded in French from 1377), from Medieval Latin precisus (“compressed, concise”). Van Veen and Van der Sijs and…
soort
It is inherited from Middle Dutch sorte, borrowed from French sorte (“sort, class”), from Latin sors (“lot, share, rank; manner”), genitive ⟨sortis⟩. The EWN derives the Latin noun probably from the…
spijt
It is inherited from Middle Dutch spijt, a shortening of despijt (“contempt, rancour”), borrowed from Old French despit (“contempt; resentment”) (modern French dépit), from Latin dēspectus (“a…