Portuguese words from French
97 Portuguese words with French in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
agir
It is borrowed from French agir, from Latin agō (“to drive, do”), according to Machado, Nascentes and Wiktionary. Houaiss, Cunha and the Academia's DLP derive it directly from the Latin verb, Vieira…
álcali
Houaiss and Priberam take it as borrowed from French alcali, first recorded in French in 1509, while Cunha and Aurélio derive it from the Latin of the chemists, Medieval Latin alcali. The Latin word…
ancião
Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio and Wiktionary take it as borrowed from Old French ancien (“old, former”), a word of three syllables in Old French. The French word goes back to Vulgar Latin *anteānus…
arrestar
Houaiss takes it as borrowed from Old French arester (“to stop, hold back, seize”) (today French arrêter), a verb formed from Latin ad- and restō (“to stay, stop, resist”). The DELPo and Vieira also…
arrumar
Its origin is disputed. Machado, Cunha, Michaelis and the DLP take it as borrowed from Old French arrumer (“to stow cargo”), a verb of the French seafaring vocabulary related to the Germanic word…
aventura
It is probably borrowed from Old French aventure (“what is to happen to someone”), the view of Houaiss, Cunha, Machado and the Porto dictionary. The French word is from Vulgar Latin *adventūra, the…
bala
It is borrowed from French balle. The French word for a bale is Gallo-Romance and goes back to Frankish *balla, while that for a ball and bullet, recorded from 1534, is taken from northern Italian…
barrica
It is borrowed from French barrique (“cask”), a word of southern French origin, first recorded in French in 1455. The French word was borrowed from the Occitan of south-western France, where it is…
bebé
It is borrowed from French bébé (“baby”). Machado and Cunha explain the French word as the nickname of a famous dwarf (1739–1764) at the court of Stanisław Leszczyński, and add that the English word…
beberagem
Houaiss, Cunha and Aurélio take it as borrowed from Old French breuvage (“drink”). Cunha derives the French word from a Latin *biberaculum, which Houaiss glosses “a liquid made for drinking”…
berço
It is probably borrowed from Old French bers (“cradle”), a word recorded about 1150. Machado quotes Gonçalves Viana: the etymology is uncertain, but in Portuguese, as in Galician berce, the word…
biscoito
It is probably borrowed from Old French bescuit, from Medieval Latin biscoctus (“twice-cooked”). Houaiss dates the Old French form to 1112, and Cunha and Machado give the French route as likely, not…
bisel
It is borrowed from Old French bisel, the old form of French biseau, according to Cunha, Machado, Aurélio, the Academia's dictionary and the Porto Editora dictionary. Houaiss starts instead from the…
bordel
It is borrowed from French bordel (“hut; brothel”). Houaiss traces it to Old French bordel, recorded before 1105 for a hut, and for a brothel from about 1200. Nascentes and Caldas Aulete took it…
bordo
1. The word for the side of a ship is borrowed from French bord, from Frankish *bord (“side of a ship”), according to Houaiss, who makes borda and the old borde variants of it. Machado derives the…
botão
It is borrowed from Old French boton (“bud; button”), the French word now spelt bouton. Houaiss dates the Old French form to 1160 and the modern spelling to 1236. The French noun is derived from the…
botar
It is borrowed from Old French boter (“to strike, push, put”), modern French bouter, from Frankish *bōtan (“to push, strike”). Houaiss dates the Old French verb to about 1100 and reconstructs the…
brasão
It is borrowed from French blason. Michaelis and Figueiredo derived it from Spanish blasón instead, but the Spanish word, itself from French, is recorded only from 1539–1542. The French word…
briga
Houaiss and Cunha take it as borrowed from French brigue (“quarrel”), which French borrowed from Italian briga. The Italian noun is recorded from before 1294, in Brunetto Latini, with the senses…
brisa
It is borrowed from French brise according to Houaiss, Cunha, Machado, Aurélio and Wiktionary. Houaiss adds that the Portuguese word was probably influenced by Spanish brisa and Catalan brisa, while…
canapé
It is borrowed from French canapé. The French word, recorded from 1648 for a long seat with a back for several people, is an altered form of the older Old French conopé (“bed curtain”) (about 1180)…
carabina
It is borrowed from French carabine, a short arquebus with a smooth bore, recorded in French from 1611 and as charabine at the end of the 16th century. The French word is from carabin (“light…
cartão
Houaiss, Cunha and the DLP take it as borrowed from French carton (“thick paper, pasteboard”), itself from Italian cartone. Aurélio derives it directly from the Italian word. Wiktionary, Vieira…
chapéu
It is borrowed from Old French chapel, the older form of French chapeau, written Old Galician-Portuguese chapel in the oldest texts. Lapa calls the medieval word a Gallicism, and Vieira (1871–1874)…
chefe
It is borrowed from French chef (“head, leader”). The French word is from Old French chief, written chieef in the 9th century, from Vulgar Latin capus, an altered form of caput (“head”). Vieira…
chocar
1. The word for colliding is borrowed from French choquer, according to Houaiss and Aurélio. Vieira, Figueiredo, the Academia's dictionary, Michaelis and Wiktionary derive it instead from Portuguese…
colher
1. The word for gathering and picking is inherited from Latin colligō (“to bring together, collect”), written Old Galician-Portuguese colher and coller in the 13th century. Houaiss explains the…
condestável
It is borrowed from Old French conestable, with its first syllable remade on conde “count”. The French word goes back to Late Latin comes stabulī (“officer of the stable”), whose second word is the…
coragem
It is borrowed from Old French corage (“heart; courage”), as Aurélio, Michaelis, Nascentes and DELPo give it. Houaiss, Cunha and the DLP name modern French courage, and Wiktionary also allows a…
costume
1. The word for a custom or habit is inherited from Vulgar Latin *consuetumen (“custom”), an alteration of Latin cōnsuētūdō (“custom, habit, usage”) in which the suffix was replaced, through a form…
crime
Houaiss and Wiktionary take it as borrowed from French crime, recorded in French from about 1165, from Latin crīmen (“accusation; crime”). Cunha, Nascentes, Aurélio and the DLP derive it directly…
dançar
It is borrowed from Old French dancier, the old form of French danser, which is recorded about 1170. The DLP and Porto Editora name the modern French verb as the source. Wiktionary instead has it…
debater
It is probably borrowed from French débattre, which is formed from dé- and battre (“to beat”). Houaiss dates the French verb in the sense “to debate” to 1283; the DHLF dates the verb to about 1050…
desertar
It is borrowed from French déserter according to Cunha, Aurélio, Priberam, the DLP and the Porto dictionary, and the French verb is from Late Latin dēsertō (“to abandon”), the frequentative of Latin…
doutoral
Houaiss takes it as probably borrowed from French doctoral (“relating to a doctor”), a French word he dates to about 1380, from Latin doctoralis, with the first part adapted to doutor. Cunha and the…
embaixador
It is borrowed from French ambassadeur, according to Houaiss and Cunha. Houaiss dates the French word to 1366 and calls it a loan from Italian ambasciatore (13th century). Aurélio and the Academia's…
emir
It is borrowed from French émir, from Arabic أمير (ʔamīr, “commander, prince”), according to Houaiss, Cunha and Nascentes. Corriente, Pereira and Vicente also treat the Portuguese, Spanish and…
escote
It is borrowed from Old French escot (“share of a payment”), modern French écot. Houaiss dates the Old French noun to the 13th century and notes that its derivative escoter (“to pay one's…
esmeralda
It is inherited from Latin smaragdus (“emerald”), from Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smáragdos). Aurélio starts from a feminine Vulgar Latin *smaragda. Nunes starts from *smaralda, and Cornu set up an…
esmerilhão
It is borrowed from Old French esmerillon (“merlin”), modern French émerillon. Aurélio and Nascentes give the modern French form as the source. The French word is first recorded around 1165 as the…
estrangeiro
It is borrowed from Old French estrangier, the source of French étranger, first as Old Galician-Portuguese strangeiro. The Old French word is derived from estrange (“strange, foreign”), from Latin…
estuque
It is borrowed from French stuc, from Italian stucco. Vieira, Silva Bastos and Figueiredo give the Italian word as the direct source, Michaelis the French one. Houaiss dates the French word to 1524…
flanco
It is borrowed from French flanc (“flank, side of the body”), first as a military term. Bluteau already explained it as a term of fortification taken from the French word for the side of an animal…
floresta
It is borrowed from Old French forest (“wide wooded land”) (modern French forêt), whose form was probably influenced by flor “flower”. The oldest Portuguese forms are Old Galician-Portuguese…
fogaça
1. The word for the cake is inherited from Late Latin focācium (“bread baked in the hearth”), taken over through its plural focācia, which was understood as a feminine singular. Houaiss explains it…
fonte
1. The word for a spring is inherited from Latin fōns (“spring, well”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fonte in the oldest texts. The Latin noun was masculine, but changed gender in the 4th…
fornir
It is borrowed from Old French fornir (“to accomplish, carry out”), the modern French fournir, which Houaiss dates to about 1160 and derives from a West Germanic *frumjan. The DHLF records the Old…
frota
It is borrowed from Old French flote (“fleet”), the older form of flotte. The French word comes from Old Norse floti (“fleet, raft”). Orel derives the Old Norse noun from Proto-Germanic *flutōn…
gaio
1. The word for “cheerful” is probably borrowed from French gai (“merry”), which Houaiss takes as a loan from Old Occitan gai (“lively, merry”). Nascentes, Porto Editora and the DLP derive it…
galé
It is borrowed from Old French galee, first recorded about 1100, which goes back to Italian galea. Cunha traces the Italian word through Medieval Latin galea to Byzantine Greek, as do Aurélio and…
galopar
It is borrowed from French galoper (“to gallop”). Priberam and Michaelis instead analyse it as from Portuguese galope + -ar, the noun having come from French galop in the 14th century. The French…
gravar
1. The verb for “to burden, encumber” is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin gravō (“to weigh down, burden, aggravate”), according to Houaiss, Nascentes and Wiktionary. Houaiss dates it to the…
gravata
It is borrowed from French cravate (“necktie”). The French word was at first a military term, a soldier of the light cavalry, originally a Croat, since Croatian horsemen formed a mercenary regiment…
gris
It is borrowed from Old French gris (“grey”), written Old Galician-Portuguese gris in the oldest texts, according to Houaiss, Wiktionary and the DLP. Cunha and Aurélio derive it instead from Old…
harpa
It is borrowed from French harpe, from Late Latin harpa, which is of Germanic origin. Houaiss adds that the word entered Late Latin through soldiers of Germanic origin. Wiktionary has it instead…
humanista
Houaiss, Cunha, Aurélio and the DLP take it as borrowed from French humaniste. Houaiss dates the French word to 1580, forty years after his first Portuguese record of 1540. Others treat it as formed…
jardim
It is borrowed from Old French jardin (“garden; enclosure”), written Old Galician-Portuguese jardin in the oldest texts. The French word, recorded from the 12th century, is a diminutive of jart…
jardineiro
Houaiss derives it from Portuguese jardim + -eiro, with the final nasal of the noun developing into a dental ⟨n⟩; he notes that Cunha derives it instead from the verb jardinar. Wiktionary and…
ligeiro
It is borrowed from Old French legier (“light, nimble”), the source of modern French léger. The French word comes from Vulgar Latin *leviārius, derived from levis (“light”). Nascentes reports that…
linhagem
It is borrowed from Old French lignage, from ligne (“line”), which comes from Latin līnea (“linen thread, line”). Cunha compares Old Occitan linhatge, and the Crónica Geral's glossary allows either…