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The period from 1250 to 1400 was the most prolific for borrowed words from French. Forty percent of all the French words in English appear for the first time between these two dates. [12] After this period, the scale of the lexical borrowing decreased sharply, though French loan words have continued to enter English even into the modern era.
Generally, words coming from French often retain a higher register than words of Old English origin, and they are considered by some to be more posh, elaborate, sophisticated, or pretentious. However, there are exceptions: weep , groom and stone (from Old English) occupy a slightly higher register than cry , brush and rock (from French).
Before the age of the internet, it was commonly believed, and widely taught in schools in Britain, that the word "toilet" was a rather vulgar corruption of the French word "toilettes" and that "lavatory" was the correct expression to use because it was much closer in meaning to the French the word it was derived from, "lavatoire," which was ...
It excludes combinations of words of French origin with words whose origin is a language other than French — e.g., ice cream, sunray, jellyfish, killjoy, lifeguard, and passageway— and English-made combinations of words of French origin — e.g., grapefruit (grape + fruit), layperson (lay + person), mailorder, magpie, marketplace, surrender ...
Most of the older Norman (sometimes called "French") words in English reflect its influence, which became a conduit for the introduction into the Anglo-Norman realm, as did Anglo-Norman control of Anjou and Gascony and other continental possessions. Anglo-Norman was a language that reflected a shared culture on both sides of the English Channel ...
Pages in category "Lists of English words of French origin" The following 8 pages are in this category, out of 8 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. ...
This hurdle in the creation of new words allows time and space for English neologisms to enter common usage in the French language. In many cases, l'Académie publishes French alternatives or creates French neologisms, however these words often fail to achieve the public traction which, by definition has to have been achieved by the English ...
The Old French word jai was borrowed into Middle English around 1310. The AHD states that it may come from the Latin forename Gaius, but it gives no reason for the semantic change. [1] The OED does not address the Gaius theory, only stating that it cannot be identified with Old French gai ('gay'). [1]