Words from Old French

Family

Languages that grew out of Old French: Middle French.

The words, A to Z

• acolyte

  Before it meant a devoted helper, this word simply named someone who walked behind another.

• adroit

  Being skillful, this word suggests, is really just a matter of being pointed the right way.

• alloy

  The word for mixed metals is secretly about tying things together.

• almanac

  A yearly book of dates and weather once carried the sky itself in its name.

• almond

  This nut's name picked up a stray letter just from hanging around Arabic words.

• altruism

  A word built entirely out of the idea of 'someone else.'

• ambush

  To wait for someone, you first have to hide in the shrubbery.

• ample

  This word for roomy abundance may hide the idea of being full all the way around.

• anthem

  A song that started out meaning voices answering each other across a church.

• appease

  To calm someone down often means, at its root, to hand them peace itself.

• apron

  This word for kitchen wear stole its first letter from the word 'a' by mistake.

• armor

  The gear that protects a body traces back to the joints that hold one together.

• arraign

  That silent-ish 'g' in the middle? It's a 500-year-old typo that stuck.

• artillery

  Before it meant cannons, this word meant getting properly kitted out for battle.

• assault

  At its root, this word is just a violent leap toward someone.

• attire

  Getting dressed once meant getting yourself into rank and order.

• azure

  A sky-blue word that started life as a stone from a mountain region in Afghanistan.

• baboon

  This animal's name may come from the wrinkled, grimacing face it was thought to wear.

• band

  The thing holding your favorite musicians together shares a root with the thing holding your shoelaces together.

• barrel

  A round wooden container that may have started out as something you simply carried.

• batter

  This word for repeated blows started as a way of saying 'to beat, again and again.'

• begonia

  This flower's name is really a thank-you note to a 17th-century French official.

• benign

  A word that literally means 'well-born' — but now describes anything gentle at heart.

• bill

  The slip of paper demanding your money once started life as a wax seal stamped on official documents.

• bottle

  A small cask that shrank its way into English through French kitchens.

• brief

  This word for 'short' has been shrinking things down since before Rome was writing them.

• buffet

  The word for a spread of dishes started out as furniture, not food.

• bureaucracy

  The word for red tape actually starts with a reddish cloth on a desk.

• burgeon

  The word for sudden, thriving growth once meant nothing grander than a little bud pushing itself into the light.

• buzzard

  A scavenging hawk got its English name by way of a chain of French tinkering.

• cabaret

  A word for late-night entertainment that started out describing something much smaller and plainer: a room.

• canal

  A word for a man-made waterway that started life as a humble reed.

• candy

  That sweet word in your mouth traveled through four languages before it ever touched your tongue.

• canon

  The rule you measure everything else against started life as a humble reed.

• cape

  This little word wears two hats — one pointing out to sea, the other draped over your shoulders.

• carol

  Before it meant a Christmas song, this word meant a circle of people, moving together and singing.

• carpet

  The floor covering under your feet once traveled a long trade route from an Armenian kingdom to Florence before it ever reached English.

• catalogue

  Behind every list you've ever flipped through is someone, long ago, counting things aloud.

• cataract

  A single word for both a roaring waterfall and a clouded eye — both born from the idea of something crashing down and blocking the way.

• catholic

  A word that once meant 'all-embracing' before it settled into naming a particular branch of the church.

• causeway

  A raised road across water or marsh got its name from the very stuff it was paved with — or possibly the feet that tramped it down.

• chapter

  A book's little heads, lined up one after another.

• charm

  This word for a spell of appeal once literally meant a spell — sung.

• chess

  The board game's name is really a shout of "the king!" passed down through five languages.

• chestnut

  A shell dropped from an old word for the tree itself, once it fused with the humble word for 'nut.'

• chronicle

  A record that keeps time honest, one event after another.

• cider

  That crisp apple drink you sip in autumn once meant almost any strong liquor at all.

• civilian

  The word for anyone outside the military owes its shape to a simple suffix stitched onto an old idea of citizenship.

• client

  The person leaning on you for help was, quite literally, named for the leaning.

• climate

  The weather patterns we talk about today were once just a matter of tilt.

• closet

  This word for your storage nook once meant a little patch of walled-off garden.

• coat

  The word we use for what we wear started out as nothing more than woolen cloth.

• coil

  Those neat loops of rope started out as an act of gathering, not winding.

• collateral

  This word literally means standing side by side, which is exactly what backup security does for a loan.

• cologne

  This fragrant word is really just a shortened trip to a German city, by way of French water.

• companion

  Literally: someone you break bread with.

• confer

  The word for a meeting of minds once meant simply carrying things toward each other.

• conjunction

  The little word that ties two thoughts into one breath.

• connoisseur

  Someone who truly knows what they're looking at once just meant, literally, 'one who knows.'

• conquer

  Before it meant taking a kingdom, this word simply meant going after something you wanted.

• consonant

  This word for a letter like B or T literally means 'sounding together' — because it only really speaks when a vowel joins in.

• contend

  To argue your case is, at its root, to stretch yourself toward something with everything you've got.

• corset

  A garment named, quite literally, for the little body it was built to shape.

• cost

  Before it meant what you owe, it meant what stands firm beside something else.

• county

  This word for a chunk of local government was once literally the turf a count ruled over.

• coup

  A single word for one sharp, decisive strike — political or otherwise.

• courage

  The bravery you carry got its name from the organ you carry it in.

• court

  The place where kings once held their followers is the same root behind where tennis players now chase a ball.

• crime

  This word for wrongdoing pushed out a perfectly good English word that had been doing the job for centuries.

• croissant

  That crescent-shaped pastry is literally named for the act of growing.

• curfew

  An order to stay inside once traces back to an order to smother the flames.

• cushion

  The soft thing you sit on takes its name, quite literally, from your hip.

• dagger

  A short blade whose own family tree is oddly hard to pin down.

• dart

  A tiny weapon named for the leap it makes through the air.

• debris

  The scattered leftovers of something that used to hold together.

• debut

  A first appearance on stage traces back to the simple act of aiming for a target.

• December

  The last month of the year still carries the number ten in its bones.

• dedication

  Before it meant devotion to a cause, this word meant setting apart a building for something sacred.

• delegate

  Someone sent to speak for others, before they even had a name for it in English.

• delight

  The spelling looks like it has 'light' hiding inside it — but that's just a happy accident of English.

• desert

  A land people once thought of as simply left behind.

• diadem

  Before it meant a jeweled crown, this word simply meant something tied on.

• dignity

  The word for self-worth once meant something closer to being deemed worth taking seriously.

• dinner

  The meal we now save for evening once meant simply the first bite of the day.

• disciple

  Before it meant a devoted follower, this word simply meant someone who was learning.

• discipline

  The order we impose on ourselves was once simply what a pupil received from a teacher.

• disclose

  To reveal something is, at its root, to un-shut it.

• discount

  Taking money off a price is, at its root, a kind of counting backward.

• disdain

  There's a French cousin who shrugs the exact same shrug of disdain.

• doctrine

  Behind every rigid set of beliefs is a word that just meant 'teaching.'

• doily

  This dainty table mat is named after a shopkeeper, not a stitch pattern.

• drab

  A word for dullness that started life woven into cloth.

• dragon

  The fire-breathing beast in our stories was named for its stare, not its scales.

• dungeon

  The word for a castle's darkest cell once meant the exact opposite: its tallest, proudest tower.

• eager

  A word that once meant sharp as vinegar now describes a sharp appetite for something.

• eagle

  A grand bird carried into English on the back of a borrowed word, edging out a homegrown one along the way.

• economy

  Before it meant markets and money, this word meant keeping a house in order.

• edict

  A word for an order that comes from the very top, with no room for discussion.

• elite

  The word for the chosen few literally means 'chosen.'

• embellish

  To dress up the truth, or anything else, with a little extra shine.

• enamel

  That glassy shine on your teeth or your grandmother's saucepan traces back to a word for melting metal.

• endure

  To hold on through hardship is, at its root, to turn stone-hard.

• engine

  The machine in your car once meant sheer cleverness before it meant moving parts.

• ennui

  A word for boredom so deep it borders on being hated by life itself.

• enterprise

  A bold venture takes its name from the simple act of grabbing hold of something between your hands.

• equinox

  There's one word for the moment day and night hang perfectly balanced on a scale.

• espionage

  The word for spying got its hissing first sound back after centuries of staying quiet.

• evangelist

  Someone whose whole job is being the messenger of good news.

• evidence

  Something that can be seen carries its own proof.

• excise

  One little word hides two separate histories that just happened to end up looking alike.

• exercise

  A word built from 'out' plus a root meaning to keep something shut in — training as a kind of controlled release.

• fabric

  The cloth on your table and the workshop where it was made share the same ancestor.

• fervent

  This word for burning enthusiasm once described something literally boiling.

• fervor

  This word carries the memory of something boiling over.

• feudal

  The system of lords and vassals owes its name, oddly enough, to cows.

• fig

  This small sweet fruit carries a name that may stretch back to a Phoenician word for ripeness itself.

• finesse

  The word for skillful subtlety once described how pure a piece of metal was.

• flute

  This slender instrument's name might be a mashup of two other instruments, or just the sound of breath itself.

• fork

  The utensil on your table shares a name with a device once used for something far grimmer.

• fortitude

  The strength to stand still when everything says run.

• fortress

  A word for strength itself, dressed up in a Latin suit meant for abstract qualities.

• fraction

  A piece of a whole carries, in its bones, the memory of something being broken apart.

• funnel

  The shape of this word has always matched its job: pouring something narrow into something wide.

• furnace

  This word for a fire-chamber has been quietly glowing since a Proto-Indo-European root for 'warm' first split off a suffix.

• future

  The word for what hasn't happened yet is secretly just an irregular form of the verb "to be."

• gargoyle

  That stone creature leering off the roofline shares its throat with a word you use at the sink every morning.

• garrison

  Behind this word for troops stationed to defend a place is an old promise of safekeeping.

• garter

  A word for a leg-band that once simply meant the leg itself.

• gentle

  Being mild-mannered used to mean being well-born.

• ginger

  This spicy root's name is itself rooted in the word for 'root.'

• grate

  That harsh rasp of cheese against metal traces back to a word for scraping, not the thing being scraped.

• grief

  The word for sorrow was once, quite literally, just another word for heavy.

• hedgehog

  A pig that lives in the shrubbery — at least, that's what its name literally claims.

• helmet

  This head-protector's name literally means 'little helm.'

• herb

  This word's silent H spent centuries as a spelling-vs-speech standoff.

• heresy

  The word for forbidden belief was once just a word for choosing.

• horizon

  The line where the sky sits down is named for an ancient act of drawing a limit.

• hut

  A tiny shelter's name traces back to the idea of covering yourself from the world.

• hymn

  A song of praise carries a name that's been sung since ancient Greece.

• impeach

  To formally accuse someone of wrongdoing once meant simply to trip them up.

• incense

  That fragrant smoke curling from a stick has a name that literally means 'set on fire.'

• incline

  To incline is to lean toward something before you even realize you've decided to.

• injunction

  A word that arrived already carrying the weight of a command.

• ink

  The dark fluid you write with once carried the mark of an empire.

• instant

  The word for 'right now' was once about standing your ground, not standing still.

• jacket

  A small, close-fitting word that started life as someone's name.

• jaundice

  A condition named simply for the color it paints the skin.

• javelin

  This throwing spear's name traces back to a word for a simple forked branch.

• jellyfish

  This ocean drifter takes half its name from something cold enough to freeze.

• jig

  A lively dance whose name may hide a lost fiddle string.

• journal

  Every time you write today's date, you're echoing this word's oldest meaning.

• joust

  To meet an opponent head-on, so close there's no room to miss.

• jumper

  A humble sailor's coat may have sailed all the way from Arabic tailoring into your closet.

• justice

  The word for fairness itself was once tangled up with sacred formulas.

• lamp

  This everyday word for a light-giver has been shining, quite literally, since ancient Greece.

• lamprey

  This eel-like fish may have been named for the way it clings to rocks with its mouth.

• lard

  This word for rendered fat once simply meant bacon, before it slipped from the meat itself to the fat that made it rich.

• legion

  Before it meant "a countless multitude," this word described a very specific number of Roman soldiers, gathered under one name.

• leopard

  This spotted cat's name is actually a fossil of an old zoological mix-up.

• lever

  The tool that gives you a mechanical mouthful of extra strength takes its name from the very act of lifting.

• lodge

  A cozy cabin's name once meant nothing more than a leafy shelter.

• loyalty

  A word that carries its own promise built right into its ending.

• lute

  This word for a pear-shaped, plucked instrument carries the ghost of the word 'wood' inside it.

• luxury

  A word for indulgence that started out meaning something closer to excess run wild.

• magpie

  This bird's name is basically an old joke about a gossipy woman.

• manager

  The person 'in charge' once simply had things 'in hand.'

• manufacture

  There was a time when this word meant the opposite of a machine's work.

• marigold

  This flower carries a saint's name folded right into its petals.

• marine

  A word that carries the sea in its bones, even when it's just describing a boat store.

• market

  A word for buying and selling that traces back to the simple idea of goods themselves.

• marten

  This small woodland hunter's name actually started out describing the coat on its back, not the animal itself.

• mastiff

  This hulking guard dog's name once meant nothing fiercer than 'tame.'

• matrix

  Before it meant a grid of numbers or a digital dreamworld, this word meant something much more literal: a womb.

• mattress

  The thing you sleep on once meant simply a place where something got tossed down.

• maudlin

  This word for sentimental, teary excess carries a name inside it — one soaked in tears from the start.

• meridian

  The line that splits the day at its highest, brightest point.

• migraine

  A word that literally means 'half a skull' — which is exactly where the pain lives.

• milieu

  The place you belong is baked right into the word for it.

• mince

  To turn something into smaller and smaller pieces, whether it's meat or your words.

• minute

  The tiniest slice of an hour got its name from the idea of being made small.

• miracle

  The word for something astonishing began as the simple act of staring in wonder.

• mirror

  The glass you check yourself in was named, deep down, for wonder — not reflection.

• mitten

  That cozy hand-warmer might owe its name to either a cat or the concept of 'half.'

• mould

  One little word secretly holds three unrelated pasts — a shape, a soft growth, and the earth itself.

• mushroom

  This fungus got its name from the damp, mossy ground it liked to grow on.

• musical

  A word that turned the very idea of music into a description of something else.

• musk

  A perfume note that traces back, oddly, to a word for mouse.

• mutton

  The meat on your plate once had to leap a chain of languages before it got there.

• necromancy

  A word for speaking with the dead that once wore a disguise as the color black.

• notary

  There's a whole profession built on the simple act of putting pen to paper and standing behind it.

• nurture

  This word carries the quiet work of feeding something until it grows.

• October

  The tenth month still carries the number eight in its name.

• olive

  This small fruit's name may trace back to a language spoken by the Etruscans, long before Rome ruled the Mediterranean.

• onion

  A humble kitchen staple that once had two separate names racing to describe it in English.

• ordain

  To officially set something in place, this word carries the same root idea as arranging things in their proper order.

• outrage

  This word for fury was once just a fancy way of saying 'too much.'

• paella

  The name of this rice dish actually just means the cookware it's made in.

• pain

  The word for hurt started out as the price you owed for a wrong.

• pantry

  The room where you keep the crackers owes its name to something much more basic: bread.

• parcel

  That wrapped package on your doorstep is, at its core, just a tiny piece of something bigger.

• parsley

  This kitchen herb's name is secretly a tiny geology lesson.

• parsnip

  This root vegetable's name carries a phantom letter that snuck in from a completely different plant.

• partridge

  This bird's name may carry a rather unglamorous secret about the sound it makes.

• peace

  The calm we call peace was once just a deal that had been nailed down tight.

• peach

  This juicy fruit's name once meant something else entirely: an apple from Persia.

• pencil

  The thing you write with started out as a tiny little tail.

• pewter

  This dull gray metal alloy carries a name whose own origins have gone a little tarnished.

• phantom

  Something that looks solid but was born from the Greek word for making things visible.

• pheasant

  This bird carries a river's name wherever it flies.

• phoenix

  A bird of endless renewal that began, oddly enough, as a real wading bird on the Nile.

• pilgrim

  A word for someone on a journey once simply meant someone from somewhere else.

• pillage

  To strip a place bare, all the way down to the roots.

• pitcher

  One word, two totally unrelated pasts — a thrower and a jug, sharing nothing but sound.

• plague

  Before it meant a sweeping epidemic, this word simply meant a hit you couldn't dodge.

• pocket

  The little bag sewn into your clothes started out as a tiny swelling word for something that puffs up.

• poetry

  Behind this word for verse stands a much older word for a maker.

• porcupine

  A spiny animal whose name literally calls it a pig with spines.

• pore

  The tiny openings in your skin carry a name that once simply meant 'passage.'

• pouch

  A little bag with a big family tree, stretching back through French and Frankish soil to a Germanic root for a sack.

• prayer

  The word we use for asking has an older Latin root meaning to beg or entreat.

• preach

  Every sermon owes a debt to a Latin word that just meant announcing something loudly.

• prefect

  The person put in charge didn't earn the title by vote — someone simply placed them there.

• preposition

  The little word that always jumps ahead in line.

• preside

  To run a meeting, you literally have to sit above it.

• price

  The number tag on things once had a lot more to do with worth than with dollars and cents.

• prison

  A place you're put when someone else does the grabbing.

• proceed

  To move forward with something, one careful step at a time — that's baked right into its Latin bones.

• prune

  This dried fruit's name traces back through French and Latin to a Greek word borrowed from an ancient language of Asia Minor.

• pudding

  This dessert's name once meant something you'd never want to eat plain.

• pulley

  A little wheel that quietly took its name from the idea of spinning, not pulling.

• pulse

  The beat in your wrist and the beans in your soup share a surprising ancestor.

• pyramid

  Even scholars can't agree whether this word came from wheat, reaping, or an ancient Egyptian phrase for 'height.'

• quaint

  This word for old-fashioned charm once meant sharp and knowing, not sweetly outdated.

• quilt

  The thing on your bed shares a hidden family tree with a game played on a lawn.

• rampart

  A word that literally means 'to prepare again' — because a fortress wall is defense you built twice over.

• rate

  Behind every price tag or heartbeat count lies an old idea of reckoning things out in fixed shares.

• rebel

  To rebel is, literally, to pick a fight you've already lost once before.

• recover

  To get something back is, in a sense, to cover it again with your own hands.

• referee

  The person on the field is, literally, someone a decision has been handed to.

• reinforce

  This word is just 'force' with an extra push already built into it.

• rent

  The money you pay to live somewhere started out as a word for simply 'giving back.'

• replace

  To put something back where it belongs — or to put something new in its spot.

• reproach

  A word that once meant simply "bring close again" now carries the sting of blame.

• repugnant

  Something so objectionable it feels like it's actively fighting back against you.

• resistor

  Something that pushes back gets a name built right into its grammar.

• retail

  Every time you buy a single item off a shelf, you're echoing an old act of cutting something smaller.

• revenue

  The money that keeps coming back to you started out meaning just that — a coming back.

• reverence

  This word carries the weight of standing quietly before something too large to touch.

• rice

  This tiny grain carried its name across half the world before it ever reached an English plate.

• rifleman

  The soldier's title is really a tool welded to a person.

• route

  The road you take was once, quite literally, forced into existence.

• rubric

  Before it meant a grading chart, this word meant a color.

• sacrament

  Before it meant something holy, it meant something legally binding — money on the line.

• saffron

  This golden spice carried its name across four languages before it ever reached an English kitchen.

• sage

  One word hides two unrelated pasts — one rooted in tasting wisdom, the other in staying healthy.

• saint

  This word carries the weight of being set apart, made sacred, at its very root.

• salvage

  The word for rescuing what's left comes from the very idea of keeping something safe.

• sanctuary

  A word that carries the hush of a holy room even when it's just describing a quiet corner of your life.

• satchel

  A schoolbag's name once meant something small enough to hold coins, not textbooks.

• satire

  A word for biting comedy that started life as a plate of fruit.

• saucer

  That little plate under your teacup was originally built for a job much messier than holding a cup.

• scale

  One small word secretly hides three unrelated histories — a ladder, a shell, and a bowl all answering to the same name.

• scar

  A mark left behind carries two old memories at once — one of a burn, one of a cut.

• scarf

  The thing you wrap around your neck has a history as tangled as its own knot.

• schedule

  The word for your day's plan once meant nothing more than a strip of paper.

• scorpion

  This word has been skittering through languages, largely unchanged, for over two thousand years.

• scribe

  Before printing presses, someone had to put every word down by hand — that someone had a name.

• script

  This word carries the hand-motion of writing all the way back to its Latin root.

• scrivener

  Before typewriters, there were people whose entire job was the careful shaping of letters by hand.

• scuba

  The gear you strap on before diving was born as a bureaucratic string of words, squeezed down to fit on a tank.

• season

  Before it meant summer or winter, this word meant the right moment to plant something in the ground.

• sentry

  A guard whose name might secretly mean 'someone standing watch,' or might just mean 'the little path.'

• shrapnel

  This word for scattered metal fragments started as a man's name on a battlefield invention.

• siren

  A word that sang its way from mythic rocks to police cars, sea cows, and salamanders.

• skirmish

  A small, scrappy fight that traces back to a stage clown's name.

• soil

  This word for earth actually grew out of a scribe's mix-up between two similar-looking Latin words.

• spirit

  The word for what animates you started out as nothing more than your breath.

• sprite

  A word that split into three lives: a fairy, a bit of graphics, and a flash of lightning above a storm.

• squash

  This word is really two unrelated words wearing the same coat.

• statute

  Behind every law on the books is the idea of something being firmly set in place.

• student

  The person hunched over the books is, quite literally, someone caught in the act of dedicating themselves to something.

• surrender

  To give something up, you literally have to hand it back.

• suspicion

  The feeling of glancing up at something before you can say why.

• syllable

  The word for a beat of speech literally means 'holding together.'

• synagogue

  A place of worship whose name literally means nothing more than 'coming together.'

• table

  The flat surface you eat dinner on was once just a word for any board or plank.

• taffeta

  This crisp, shimmery fabric carries a name that traveled from Persia through Latin and French before landing in English.

• tangerine

  This little citrus fruit is named after a city on the coast of Morocco.

• tartan

  The crisscross pattern we now call quintessentially Scottish may trace back to a purple dye from a Phoenician port city.

• tenement

  Behind this word for a crowded city building is the simple idea of holding something.

• theater

  A building whose very name means 'a place for watching.'

• tolerance

  The word for putting up with something once simply meant the muscle to keep standing under a weight.

• tourist

  Someone who goes around — literally, since the root of this word once meant a turn on a lathe.

• tournament

  A word that once meant the whirling clash of knights before it meant a bracket of games.

• towel

  The cloth you dry your hands with carries a very old command: get clean.

• treacle

  This sticky, sweet word once meant something you'd want on hand for a snakebite, not a scone.

• treble

  The high, piercing voice in a choir shares its name with the number three.

• trunk

  This word for a tree's main stem once meant something closer to a body missing its head.

• turmeric

  A golden spice with a name that might mean 'earth that deserves praise'.

• turquoise

  This gem-blue word actually carries the name of a whole nation inside it.

• tyrant

  A word for absolute power that itself picked up an extra letter along the way to English.

• ulcer

  A word that traveled from Latin through French to name one of the body's oldest complaints.

• valley

  This word for low ground between hills has quietly pushed a couple of old English words toward the edges.

• vengeance

  This word carries the weight of a debt someone intends to collect in full.

• volume

  Before it meant loudness or size, this word simply meant something you could unroll and read.

• wage

  Your paycheck's ancestor was really just a promise someone had to keep.

• wardrobe

  A piece of furniture whose name literally means keeping your clothes under guard.

• warrant

  Before it meant legal permission, this word meant someone standing guard over you.

• zodiac

  The belt of constellations gets its name from a parade of tiny creatures.